[Footnote A:  There are laws in some of the slave states, limiting the labor which the master may require of the slave to fourteen hours daily.  In some of the states there are laws requiring the masters to furnish a certain amount of food and clothing, as for instance, one quart of corn per day, or one peck per week, or one bushel per month, and “one linen shirt and pantaloons for the summer, and a linen shirt and woolen great coat and pantaloons for the winter,” &c.  But “still,” to use the language of Judge Stroud “the slave is entirely under the control of his master,—­is unprovided with a protector,—­and, especially as he cannot be a witness or make complaint in any known mode against his master, the apparent object of these laws may always be defeated.”  ED.]

3.  The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or pledged, or leased at the will of his master.  He may be exchanged for marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or taxes either of a living or dead master.  Sold at auction, either individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his family, or be separated from them for ever.

4.  Slaves can make no contracts and have no legal right to any property, real or personal.  Their own honest earnings and the legacies of friends belong in point of law to their masters.

5.  Neither a slave nor a free colored person can be a witness against any white, or free person, in a court of justice, however atrocious may have been the crimes they have seen him commit, if such testimony would be for the benefit of a slave; but they may give testimony against a fellow slave, or free colored man, even in cases affecting life, if the master is to reap the advantage of it.

6.  The slave may be punished at his master’s discretion—­without trial—­without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to any person or persons, he may choose to appoint.

7.  The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under any circumstances, his only safety consists in the fact that his owner may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor.

8.  Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such a change necessary for their personal safety.

9.  The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations.

10.  The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where the master is willing to enfranchise them.

11.  The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious instruction and consolation.

12.  The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state of the lowest ignorance.

13.  There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right.  What is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly criminal in the slave; the same offences which cost a white man a few dollars only, are punished in the negro with death.