s the law, "that such striking be not done by the
command and in the defence of the person or property of the owner, or
other person having the government of such slave; in which case the
slave shall be wholly excused."

According to this law, if a slave, by the direction of his overseer,
strike a white person who is beating said overseer's pig, "the slave
shall be wholly excused." But, should the bondman, of his own accord,
fight to defend his wife, or should his terrified daughter
instinctively raise her hand and strike the wretch who attempts to
violate her chastity, he or she shall, saith the model republican law,
suffer death.

From having been myself a slave for nearly twenty-three years, I am
quite prepared to say, that the practical working of slavery is worse
than the odious laws by which it is governed.

At an early age we were taken by the persons who held us as property to
Macon, the largest town in the interior of the State of Georgia, at
which place we became acquainted with each other for several years
before our marriage; in fact, our marriage was postponed for some time
simply because one of the unjust and worse than Pagan laws under which
we lived compelled all children of slave mothers to follow their
condition. That is to say, the father of the slave may be the
President of the Republic; but if the mother should be a slave at the
infant's birth, the poor child is ever legally doomed to the same cruel
fate.

It is a common practice for gentlemen (if I may call them such), moving
in the highest circles of society, to be the fathers of children by
their slaves, whom they can and do sell with the greatest impunity; and
the more pious, beautiful, and virtuous the girls are, the greater the
price they bring, and that too for the most infamous purposes.

Any man with money (let him be ever such a rough brute), can buy a
beautiful and virtuous girl, and force her to live with him in a
criminal connexion; and as the law says a slave shall have no higher
appeal than the mere will of the master, she cannot escape, unless it
be by flight or death.

In endeavouring to reconcile a girl to her fate, the master sometimes
says that he would marry her if it was not unlawful.* However, he will
always consider her to be his wife, and will treat her as such; and
she, on the other hand, may regard him as her lawful husband; and if
they have any children, they will be free and well educated.

I am in duty bound