UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

so,
106 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
course, we see not how theycould hesitate to coma
to this verdictat once.
which it could be said, " See,this was a
The correspondent who furnishes the Register
man!"
"
when
with a report of the Slaveryhas finished
case says :
"
It excited an intense interest in the community
it occurred,and,althoughit develops
in which
a series of cruelties shocking to human
nature, the resultof the trial,nevertheless, vindicates
of our laws towards
the benignity and justice
that class of our population whose condition
Northern fanaticism has so carefullyand
grosslymisrepresented, for their own
purposes of
selfishness, agitation, and crime."
We have no disposition to misrepresent the
condition of the slaves,or to disparage the laws
of North Carolina ; but we ask,with a sincere
desire to know the truth,Do the laws of North
such horrible
and would the publicsentiment of the cityof Raleigh
permit a repetition of such enormities as
were perpetratedin its streets, in the light of
day,by that miscreant 1
In conclusion, as the accounts of these might. But where under the sun did such
various trialscontain so
many shocking incidents
trials, of such cases, ever take place,
and particulars, the author desires in any nation professing to be free and
to enter a caution against certain mistaken
uses which may
be made of them,by wellintending
persons.
will perhaps recur
The crimes themselves,
which form the foundation of the trials, are
not to be consideredand spoken of as specimens
parallel
of the common working
masters,we take pleasure in saying, is
small. It is an injuryto the cause of
freedom to ground the argument against
slaveryupon the frequency
with which
such scenes as these occur. It misleads the
mind as to the real issue of the
popular
subject. To hear many men talk, one
would think that theysupposed that
negroes actually whipped
unless
or burned
alive at the rate of two or three dozen a
that dishonored body,nor anythinghj
her legitimate work upon the soul,and
trodden ōut every spark of manliness,and
honor, and self-respect, and natural affection,
and conscience, and religious sentiment,
then there is nothing left in the soul,
by which to say, " This was a man ! "
and it becomes necessary
for judgesto construct
grave legalarguments to prove that
the slave is a human being.
Such extreme cases of bodilyabuse from
the despotic power of slavery are comparatively
Carolina allow a master to practise
rare.
cruelties upon his slaves as Smith was
Perhapstheymay guiltyof,
be paralleled
by cases brough to lightin the criminal
jurisprudence of other countries. They
might,perhaps, have happenedanywhere;
at any rate, we will concede that they
Christian '} The reader of Englishhistory
to the trialsunder Judge
Jeffries, as a parallel. A moment's reflection
will convince him that there is no
between the cases. The decisions
of the slave of Jeffrieswere the decisionsof a monster,
system. They are, it is true,the logical who violently wrested law from its legitimate
and legitimate fruits of a system which
course, to gratify his own fiendish
makes every individual owner an irresponsible
nature. The decisionsof American slavelaw
have been,for the most part țhe decisions
despot. But the actual number of
them,comparedwith the whole number of of honorable and humane men, who
have wrested from their natural course the
to fulfilthe mandates
most humane feelings,
of a
cruel law.
In the case
of Jeffries, the sacred forms
of the administration of justice were violated.
In the case of the American decisions,
every
form has been maintained. Revolting
to humanity as these decisions appear,
theyare strictly logical and legal.
say, Where, ever,
in
Therefore,again,we
week, there was no harm in slaveryṪhey any nation professing to be civilized and
seem to see nothing in the system but its Christian, did such TRIALS, of such cases,
gross bodily abuses. If these are absent, take place 1 When were ever such legal
they think there isno harm in it. They do arguments made ? When, ever, such legal
not consider that the*twelve hours' torture principles judicially affirmed? Was ever
of some poor victim,bleedingaway his such a trialheld in England as that in
life,drop by drop, under the hands of a Virginia, of Souther v. The Commonavealth
'? Was it ever necessary in England
Souther,is only a symbolof that more
atrocious process by which the divine,immortal
for a judgeto declareon the bench,
soul is mangled,burned,lacerated, contrary to the opinion of a lower court,
thrown down,stampedupon, and suffocated, that the death of an apprentice, by twelve
by the fiend-like force of the tyrant Slavery.
hours' torture from his master, did amount
And as, when the torturing work was to murder in the firstdegree ? Was such a
done,and the poor soul flew up to the judgment-seat,
decision, if given,accompaniedby the
to stand there in awful witness, of the principle, that any amount
there was not a vestige of humanityleftin of torture inflictedby the master, short of
affirmatio