5. Slaves are prosecuted and tried upon criminal accusations, in many of the states, without a jury.
The condition of the slave, as regards emancipation, is peculiarly distressing.
The state of society in the slave holding states, and legislative enactments, have rendered it nearly impossible for any master to emancipate his slave.
In Virginia and Mississippi, an emancipated slave may be taken in execution to satisfy any debt, contracted by the person emancipating him, previous to such emancipation.
In Kentucky, the Act which authorises emancipation, contains a reservation of the rights of creditors.
In Louisiana, any enfranchisement made in fraud of creditors, &c. is null and void.
In South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, it is only by authority of the Legislature, specially granted, that a valid emancipation can be made.
In North Carolina it was enacted in 1777, that no negro or mulatto slave shall be hereafter set free, except for meritorious service to be adjudged of and allowed by the County Court, and license first had and obtained thereupon.
The laws of Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia and Maryland, afford greater facility to emancipation than the other slave holding states. In Virginia, however, there is a provision by which every emancipated negro, over twenty one years of age, who shall continue within the state more than twelve months after his right to freedom shall have accrued, may be again reduced to slavery.
In order to secure the slave holding states in the use and possession of their property in the persons of slaves, and to prevent all escape of slaves from their masters, the constitution of the United States provides, “That no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.”