“I consider imprisonment in the stocks at night, with or without hard labor in the day, as a powerful auxiliary in the cause of good government.  To the correctness of this opinion many can bear testimony.  EXPERIENCE has convinced ME that there is no punishment to which the slave looks with more horror.”

The advertisements of the Professors in the Medical Colleges of South Carolina, published with comments—­on pp. 169, 170, are additional illustrations of the ‘public opinion’ of the literati.

That the ‘public opinion’ of the highest class of society in South Carolina, regards slaves a mere cattle, is shown by the following advertisement, which we copy from the “Charleston (S.C.) Mercury” of May 16: 

“NEGROES FOR SALE.—­A girl about twenty years of age, (raised in Virginia,) and her two female children, one four and the other two year old—­is remarkably strong and healthy—­never having had a day’s sickness, with the exception of the small pox, in her life.  The children are fine and healthy.  She is VERY PROLIFIC IN HER GENERATING QUALITIES, and affords a rare opportunity to any person who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for their own use.

“Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at the Mercury office.”

The Charleston Mercury, in which this advertisement appears, is the leading political paper in South Carolina, and is well known to be the political organ of Messrs. Calhoun, Rhett, Pickens, and others of the most prominent politicians in the state.  Its editor, John Stewart, Esq., is a lawyer of Charleston, and of a highly respectable family.  He is a brother-in-law of Hon. Robert Barnwell Rhett, the late Attorney-General, now a Member of Congress, and Hon. James Rhett, a leading member of the Senate of South Carolina; his wife is a niece of the late Governor Smith, of North Carolina, and of the late Hon. Peter Smith, Intendant (Mayor) of the city of Charleston; and a cousin of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke.

The circulation of the ‘Mercury’ among the wealthy, the literary, and the fashionable, is probably much larger than that of any other paper in the state.

These facts in connection with the preceding advertisement, are a sufficient exposition of the ‘public opinion’ towards slaves, prevalent in these classes of society.

The following scrap of ‘public opinion’ in Florida, is instructive.  We take it from the Florida Herald, June 23, 1838: 

Ranaway from my plantation, on Monday night, the 13th instant, a negro fellow named Ben; eighteen years of age, polite when spoken to, and speaks very good English for a negro.  As I have traced him out in several places in town, I am certain he is harbored.  This notice is given that I am determined, that whenever he is taken, to punish him till he informs me who has given him food and protection, and I shall apply the law of Judge Lynch to my own satisfaction, on those concerned in his concealment.