"Whereas Some Persons Have Of Late Been Guilty Of Cutting Off And Depriving Slaves Of Their Ears, We Order That

Whoever shall extirpate an eye, tear out the tongue, or cut off the nose of a slave, shall pay five

Hundred pounds sterling, and be condemned to six months imprisonment." It is unnecessary to add that these English laws, which were in force thirty or forty years ago, are abolished and superseded by laws more humane. Why can I not say as much of the legislation of the French islands, where six young slaves, suspected of an intention to escape, were condemned, by a sentence pronounced in 1815, to have their hamstrings cut!) Notwithstanding the wisdom and mildness of Spanish legislation, to how many excesses the slave is exposed in the solitude of a plantation or a farm, where a rude capatez, armed with a cutlass (machete) and a whip, exercises absolute authority with impunity! The law neither limits the punishment of the slave, nor the duration of labour; nor does it prescribe the quality and quantity of his food.* (* A royal cedula of May 31st, 1789 had attempted to regulate the food and clothing; but that cedula was never executed.) It permits the slave, it is true, to have recourse to a magistrate, in order that he may enjoin the master to be more equitable; but this recourse is nearly illusory; for there exists another law according to which every slave may be arrested and sent back to his master who is found without permission at the distance of a league and a half from the plantation to which he belongs.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 422 of 635
Words from 115282 to 115553 of 174507