But it may be said, that these laws afford no certain evidence of the actual condition of the slaves:  that, in judging the system by its code, no allowance is made for the humanity of individual masters.  It was a just remark of the celebrated Priestley, that “no people ever were found to be better than their laws, though many have been known to be worse.” All history and common experience confirm this.  Besides, admitting that the legal severity of a system may be softened in the practice of the humane, may it not also be aggravated by that of the avaricious and cruel?

But what are the testimony and admissions of slaveholders themselves on this point?  In an Essay published in Charleston, S.C., in 1822, and entitled “A Refutation of the Calumnies circulated against the Southern and Western States,” by the late Edwin C. Holland, Esq., it is stated, that “all slaveholders have laid down non-resistance, and perfect and uniform obedience to their orders as fundamental principles in the government of their slaves:”  that this is “a necessary result of the relation,” and “unavoidable.”  Robert J. Turnbull, Esq., of South Carolina, in remarking upon the management of slaves, says, “The only principle upon which may authority over them, (the slaves,) can be maintained is fear, and he who denies this has little knowledge of them.”  To this may be added the testimony of Judge Ruffin, of North Carolina, as quoted in Wheeler’s Law of Slavery, p. 217.  “The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is no appeal from his master.  No man can anticipate the provocations which the slave would give, nor the consequent wrath of the master, prompting him to BLOODY VENGEANCE on the turbulent traitor, a vengeance generally practised with impunity by reason of its privacy.”

In an Essay on the “improvement of negroes on plantations,” by Rev. Thomas S. Clay, a slaveholder of Bryan county, Georgia, and Printed at the request of the Georgia Presbytery, in 1833, we are told “that the present economy of the slave system is to get all you can from the slave, and give him in return as little as will barely support him in a working condition!” Here, in a few words, the whole enormity of slavery is exposed to view:  “to get all you can from the slave”—­by means of whips and forks and irons—­by every device for torturing the body, without destroying its capability of labor; and in return give him as little of his coarse fare as will keep him, like a mere beast of burden, in a “working condition;” this is slavery, as explained by the slaveholder himself.  Mr. Clay further says:  “Offences against the master are more severely punished than violations of the law of God, a fault which affects the slave’s personal character a good deal.  As examples we may notice, that running away is more severely punished than adultery.”  “He (the slave) only knows his master as lawgiver and executioner, and the sole object of punishment held up to his view, is to make him a more obedient and profitable slave.”