chap, v.] WEST INDIES. 367 
verity of the Roman law, which declared sentient 
beings to be inter res , is revived and perpetuated 
in a country that pretends to Christianity! In a few 
years a good negro gets comfortably established, 
has built himself a house, obtained a wife, and be¬ 
gins to see a young family rising about him. His 
provision-ground, the creation of his own industry, 
and the staff of his existence, affords him not only 
support, but the means also of adding something 
to the mere necessaries of life. In this situation he 
is seized on by the sheriff’s officer, forcibly separa¬ 
ted from his wife and children, dragged to public 
auction, purchased by a stranger, and perhaps sent 
to terminate his miserable existence in the mines of 
Mexico, excluded for ever from the light of hea¬ 
ven ; and all this without any crime or demerit 
on his part, real or pretended. He is punished 
because his master is unfortunate. I do not believe, 
that any case of force or fraud in Africa can be pro¬ 
ductive of greater misery than this! Neither can it 
be urged, that, like some unauthorized cases of 
cruelty in the West Indies, it occurs but seldom: 
unhappily it occurs every day, and under the pre¬ 
sent system will continue to occur, so long as men 
shall continue to be unfortunate. 
Let this statute then be totally repealed. It is 
injurious to the national character; it is disgraceful 
to humanity. Let the negroes be attached to the 
cn the subject. They are men of the world, and with all their 
philanthropy, probably consider no rights so sacred as those of cre¬ 
ditors. 
