The citizens were
too fond of their own liberties to serve willingly as martinets in the
routine administration of their own laws;[17] and in consequence the
marchings of the patrol squads were almost as futile and farcical as the
musters of the militia. The magistrates and constables tended toward a
similar slackness;[18] while on the other hand the masters, easy-going as
they might be in other concerns, were jealous of any infringements of their
own dominion or any abuse of their slaves whether by private persons or
public functionaries. When in 1787, for example, a slave boy in Maryland
reported to his master that two strangers by the name of Maddox had whipped
him for killing a dog while Mr. Samuel Bishop had stood by and let them do
it, the master, who presumably had no means of reaching the two strangers,
wrote Bishop demanding an explanation of his conduct and intimating that
if this were not satisfactorily forthcoming by the next session of court,
proceedings would be begun against him[19]. While this complainant might
not have been able to procure a judgment against a merely acquiescent
bystander, the courts were quite ready to punish actual transgressors.
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