380 WILD SPORTS IN THE FAR -SYEST. 



ment. A negro, or descendant of a negro, is not 

 allowed to quit the j^lace of his abode "without a pass 

 from his master, while the free negro must always 

 have his papers about him. If a slave is found without 

 a pass, he is imprisoned until his master claims him, 

 and pays the expenses. Fugitive slaves frequently take 

 refuge in the forests ; and I remember how, in Ten- 

 nessee, large parties used to go out to surround them, and 

 recover possession of them. Although the law speaks 

 in strong language against the importation of fresh 

 negroes, yet I saw several slav.es who had been brought 

 over from Africa, and who were called Guinea negroes, 

 to distinguish them from those born in America. The 

 education of the poor blacks is strictly forbidden, for 

 fear they should write their own passes, and thus 

 escape. They are kept for use and increase like do- 

 mestic animals ; and yet these United States have this 

 sentence in their declaration of independence : " that 

 all men are free and equal ! " 



In the towns the Methodist preachers have driven 

 what Httle understanding nature has given them, out 

 of the poor blacks' heads, teaching them to jump and 

 shout, to thank God for being afflicted, and to kiss the 

 rod that chastises them. They kiss it, indeed, but 

 leave the marks of their teeth behind ; and when they 

 dare not openly oppose the tp-anny of the whites, they 

 do so in secret, and many of the hated race fall by the 

 hand of the oppressed. Examples of this kind are fre- 

 quent ; and although the jDunishment which the negro 

 has to expect for raising his hand against a white is 

 appalling, it does not prevent the deed, but only makes 

 the doer more cautious. 



