"[32] In the nineteenth
century the laws generally held the maiming or murder of slaves to be
felonies in the same degree and with the same penalties as in cases where
the victims were whites; and when the statutes were silent in the premises
the courts felt themselves free to remedy the defect.[33]
[Footnote 30: Martin, _Louisiana Reports_, XV, 142.]
[Footnote 31: H.M. Henry, _Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina_,
pp. 69-79.]
[Footnote 32: _Virginia Gazette_, Apr. 21, 1775, reprinted in the _William
and Mary College Quarterly_, VIII, 36.]
[Footnote 33: The State _vs_. Jones, in Walker, _Mississippi Reports_, p.
83, reprinted in J.D. Wheeler, _The Law of Slavery_, pp. 252-254.]
Despite the ferocity of the statutes and the courts, the fewness and the
laxity of officials was such that from time to time other agencies were
called into play. For example the maraudings of runaway slaves camped in
Belle Isle swamp, a score of miles above Savannah, became so serious and
lasting that their haven had to be several times destroyed by the Georgia
militia. On one of these occasions, in 1786, a small force first employed
was obliged to withdraw in the face of the blacks, and reinforcements
merely succeeded in burning the huts and towing off the canoes, while the
negroes themselves were safely in hiding.
Pages:
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913