prized more for his brutal powers—­to curse, beat, and torture—­than for any ability he chanced to possess for business management.  The press and pulpit had contemplated this state of affairs until they, too, were the willing abettors in the most cruel system of bondage that history has recorded.  But no man wants his horse driven to death, if it is a beast.  No one cares to have every man that passes kick his dog, even if it is not the best dog in the community.  It is his dog, and that makes all the difference in the world.  The men who did the most cruel things to the slaves they found in their daily path were, as a rule, without slaves or any other kind of property.  They used their authority unsparingly.  Common-sense taught the planters that better treatment of the slaves meant better work, and increased profits for themselves.  A small value was finally placed upon a slave’s life,—­fifty pounds.  Fifty pounds paid into the public treasury by a man who, “of wantonness, or only of bloody-mindedness, or cruel intention,” had killed “a negro or other slave of his own,” was enough to appease the public mind, and atone for a cold-blooded murder!  If he killed another man’s slave, the law demanded that he pay fifty pounds current money into the public treasury, and the full price of the slave to the owner, but was “not to be liable to any other punishment or forfeiture for the same."[491] The law just referred to, passed in 1712, was re-enacted in 1722.  One change was made in it:  i.e., if a white servant, having no property, killed a slave, three justices could bind him over to the master whose slave he killed to serve him for five years.  This law had a wholesome effect upon irresponsible white men, who often presumed upon their nationality, having neither brains, money, nor social standing, to punish slaves.

In 1740, May 10, the following Act became a law, showing that there had been a wonderful change in public sentiment rejecting the treatment of slaves:—­

“XXXVII.  And whereas, cruelty is not only highly unbecoming those who profess themselves christians but is odious in the eyes of all men who have any sense of virtue or humanity; therefore, to restrain and prevent barbarity being exercised towards slaves, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons whosoever, shall wilfully murder his own slave, or the slave of any other person every such person shall, upon conviction thereof, forfeit and pay the sum of seven hundred pounds current money, and shall be rendered, and is hereby declared altogether and forever incapable of holding, exercising, enjoying or receiving the profits of any office, place or employment, civil or military, within this Province:  And in case any such person shall not be able to pay the penalty and forfeitures hereby inflicted and imposed, every such person shall be sent to any of the frontier garrisons of this Province, or committed to the work house