98 LAW AGAINST BLACK MECHANICS. [CHAP. XXV. 



thority of the same, That from and after the 1st day 

 of February next, each and every white person who 

 shall hereafter contract or bargain with any slave, 

 mechanic, or mason, or free person of colour, being a 

 mechanic or mason, shall be liable to be indicted for 

 a misdemeanor ; and, on conviction, to be fined, at 

 the discretion of the Court, not exceeding two hun 

 dred dollars.&quot; 



Then follows another clause imposing the like 

 penalties on the owners of slaves, or guardians of 

 free persons of colour, who authorise the contracts 

 prohibited by this statute. 



I may first observe, in regard to this disgraceful 

 law, which was only carried by a small majority in 

 the Georgian Legislature, that it proves that not a few 

 of the negro race have got on so well in the world in 

 reputation and fortune, and in skill in certain arts, that 

 it was worth while to legislate against them in order 

 to keep them down, and prevent them from entering 

 into successful rivalry with the whites. It confirms, 

 therefore, most fully the impression which all I saw 

 in Georgia had left on my mind, that the blacks are 

 steadily rising in social importance in spite of slavery ; 

 or, to speak more correctly, by aid of that institution, 

 assuming, as it does, in proportion as the whites be 

 come civilised, a more and more mitigated form. In 

 the next place I shall endeavour to explain to the 

 English reader the real meaning of so extraordi 

 nary a decree. Mr. R. H. Wilde, formerly senator 

 for Georgia, told me that he once knew a coloured 

 freeman who had been brought up as a saddler, and 

 was a good workman. To his surprise he found him 



