75 



TREATMENT. OF SLAVES IN CHARLESTON, 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



My driver was a free man of colour. He gave a 

 inghtful account of the treatment to which he and 

 all the people of colour, whether free or slaves, are 

 subject in this State. He had been accustomed 

 ' formerly to go every season to the State of New 

 York, during the period when, owing to the inhabi- 

 tants leaving the city, business was almost at a 

 stand ; but, by an act passed a few years ago, it is 

 declared that a free person of colour leaving the 

 State, though merely crossing the boundary, shall 

 not be allowed to return ; and, as he has a wife and 

 family, he feels himself really and truly a prisoner in 

 the State of South Carolina. The same law declares 

 that it shall not be lawful for free persons of colour 

 to come from another state into this. If they should 

 be brought in a vessel, they are immediately confined 

 in gaol, till the vessel is ready to proceed to sea, — 

 the captain paying the expenses of their detention. 

 It is now contrary to law that even free persons of 

 colour should be educated ; — they are incompetent 

 witnesses in any case where the rights of w^hite per- 

 sons are concerned ; and their trials are conducted 

 by a justice of the peace and freeholders, without 

 the benefit of a jury. So far as respects the slaves, 

 they are even in a worse situation ; for though their 

 evidence is in no case admissable against the whites, 

 the affirmation of free persons of colour, or their 

 fellow-slaves, is received against them. I was 

 placed in a situation at Charleston which gave me 

 too frequent opportunities of witnessing the effects 

 of slavery in its most aggravated state. Mrs. Street 

 treated all the servants in the house in the most 

 barbarous manner; and this, although she knew 

 that Stewart, a hotel-keeper here, had lately nearly 

 lost his life by maltreating a slave. Stewart beat 

 his cook, who was a stout fellow, until he could no 

 longer support it. He rose upon his master, and 



