bed by Jefferson, "We have the
wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him
go."[329]

The status of the slave was determined directly by the rise of the
slave-power and on the whole shows, as was to be expected, a tendency
to treat the slave more and more as a chattel or, as Aristotle would
say, a "living tool." The general drift of the slave codes of the
various southern States was to negate the personality of the slave and
to fix his status as a part of an industrial system. The earliest of
the slave laws to be passed were of the nature of police regulations,
restricting the personal liberties of the blacks.[330] Of peculiar
interest are the laws with regard to emancipation and the status of
the free Negro, for the latter was a standing rebuke to slavery and a
fruitful source of discontent among the slaves. In 1822 a Charleston
writer says, "We look upon the existence of the Free Blacks among us
as the greatest and most deplorable evil with which we are unhappily
afflicted.... Our slaves when they look around them and see persons of
their own color enjoying a comparative degree of freedom and assuming
privileges beyond their own condition, naturally become dissatisfied
with their lot, until the feverish restlessness of this disposition
foments itself into insurrection and the 'black flood of long retained
spleen' breaks down every principle of duty and obedience."[331]

As early as 1800 South Carolina prohibited free Negroes and mulattoes
from entering the State. In 1822 they were required to have a guardian
and in 1825 were forbidden the use of firearms. By an act of 1841
emancipation of slaves was made unlawful and in 1860 free Negroes were
required to wear badges with their name and occupation.[332] In many
States emancipation was made unlawful and in Arkansas by an act of
1858 all free Negroes and mulattoes were required to leave the State
or be sold as slaves.[333] About 1830, and probably as a result of
abolition activity, acts were passed in practically all the southern
States prohibiting even the elementary forms of education to the slave
and placing heavy penalties upon whites who violated it. Thus the
status of the free Negro tended always to approximate that of the
slave. Moreover, a study of the evolution of the slave codes of each
State shows a gradual narrowing of the sphere of the slave and a
general drift towards the principle expressed in South Carolina law
that "Slaves shall b