TREATMENT OF SLAVES IN CHARLESTON. 79 



unoffending, unresisting slave be bound hand and 

 foot, and compelled his companion to chop off his 

 head with an axe, and to cast his body, convulsed 

 with the agonies of death, into the water. Judge 

 Wild, who tried him, on awarding a sentence of im- 

 prisonment against this wretch, expressed his regret 

 that the punishment provided for the offence was 

 insufficient to make the law respected, — that the 

 delinquent too well knew, — that the arm which he 

 had stretched out for the destruction of his slave, 

 was that to which alone he could look for protection, 

 disarmed as he was of the rights of self defence. 



But the most horrible butchery of slaves which 

 has ever taken place in America, was the execution 

 of thirty-five of them, on the lines near Charleston, 

 in the month of July, 1822, on account of an alleged 

 conspiracy against their masters. The whole pro- 

 ceedings are monstrous. Sixty-seven persons were 

 convicted before a court, consisting of a justice of the 

 peace, and freeholders, without a jury. The evidence 

 of slaves, not upon oath, was admitted against them, 

 and, after all, the proof was extremely scanty. 

 Perrault, a slave, who had himself been brought 

 from Africa, was the chief witness. He had been 

 torn from his father, who was very wealthy, and a 

 considerable trader in tobacco and salt on the coast 

 of Africa. He was taken prisoner, and was sold, 

 and his purchaser would not give him up, although 

 three slaves were offered in his stead. The judge's 

 address on pronouncing sentence of death on this 

 occasion, on persons sold to slavery and servitude, 

 and who, if they were guilty, were only endeavouring 

 to get rid of it in the only way in their power, seems 

 monstrous. He told them that the servant who was 

 false to his master would be false to his God, — that 

 the precept of St. Paul was to obey their masters in 

 q<ll things, and of St. Peter, to be subject to their 

 masters with all fear, and that, had they listened to 

 such doctrines, they would not now have been arres- 

 ted by an ignominious death. 



