[29] In so deciding the court may have been moved by its
repugnance toward concubinage as well as by its respect for the statutes.
[Footnote 29: Howard's _Mississippi Reports_, II, 837-844.]
The killing or injury of a slave except under circumstances justified by
law rendered the offender liable both to the master's claim for damages
and to criminal prosecution; and the master's suit might be sustained even
where the evidence was weak, for as was said in a Louisiana decision, the
deed was "one rarely committed in presence of witnesses, and the most that
can be expected in cases of this kind are the presumptions that result from
circumstances."[30] The requirement of positive proof from white witnesses
in criminal cases caused many indictments to fail.[31] A realization of
this hindrance in the law deprived convicted offenders of some of the
tolerance which their crimes might otherwise have met. When in 1775, for
example, William Pitman was found guilty and sentenced by the Virginia
General Court to be hanged for the beating of his slave to death, the
_Virginia Gazette_ said: "This man has justly incurred the penalties of
the law and we hear will certainly suffer, which ought to be a warning to
others to treat their slaves with more moderation.
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