Stroud says, "There was a time in many, if not in all the slaveholding districts of our country, when the murder of a slave was followed by a pecuniary fine only. In one State, the change of the law in this respect has been very recent. At the present date (1827) I am happy to say the wilful, malicious, deliberate murder of a slave, by whomsoever perpetrated, is declared to be punishable with death in every State. The evil is not that the laws sanction crime, but that they do not punish it. And this arises chiefly, if not solely, from the exclusion of the testimony, on the trial of a white person, of all those who are not white."
"The conflicting influences of humanity and prejudice are strangely contrasted in the law of North Carolina on this subject. An act passed in 1798, runs thus: 'Whereas by another act of assembly, passed in the year 1774, the killing of a slave, however wanton, cruel, and deliberate, is only punishable in the first instance by imprisonment, and paying the value thereof to the owner, which distinction of criminality between the murder of a white person and one who is equally a human creature, but merely of a different complexion, is disgraceful to humanity, and degrading in the highest degree to the laws and principles of a free Christian, and enlightened country, be it enacted, &c., that if any person shall hereafter be guilty of wilfully and maliciously killing a slave, such offender shall, upon the first conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of murder, and shall suffer the same punishment as if he had killed a free man; Provided always, this act shall not extend to the person killing a slave outlawed by virtue of any act of assembly of this State, or to any slave in the act of resistance[N] to his lawful owner or master, or to any slave dying under moderate correction.'"
[N] "It has been judicially determined that it is justifiable to kill a slave, resisting, or offering to resist his master by force."—Stroud.
In the laws of Tennessee and Georgia, there is a similar proviso. Where could such a monstrous anomaly be found, save in a code of slave laws? Die of moderate punishment!! Truly, this is an unveiling of consciences!
"To set the matter in its proper light, it may be added that a proclamation, of outlawry[O] against a slave is authorized, whenever he runs away from his master, conceals himself in some obscure retreat, and to sustain life, kills a hog, or some animal of the cattle kind!
[O] "The outlawry of a slave is not, I believe, an unusual occurrence. Very recently, a particular account was given of the killing of a black man, not charged with any offence, by a person in pursuit of an outlawed slave; owing, as it was stated, to the person killed not answering a call made by his pursuers. Whether the call was heard or not, of course could not be assertained, nor did it appear to have excited any inquiry."—Stroud.
"A pecuniary mulct was the only restraint upon the wilful murder of a slave, from the year 1740 to 1821, a period of more than eighty years. I find in the case of The State vs. M'Gee, 1 Bay's Reports, 164, it is said incidentally by Messrs. Pinckney and Ford, counsel for the State, that the frequency of the offence was owing to the nature of the punishment.
This was said in the public court-house by men of great respectability; nevertheless, thirty years elapsed before a change of the law was effected. So far as I have been able to learn, the following section has disgraced the statute-book of South Carolina from the year 1740 to the present hour: 'In case any person shall wilfully cut out the tongue, put out the eye, cruelly scald, burn, or deprive any slave of any limb, or member, or shall inflict any other cruel punishment,—[otherwise than by whipping, or beating, with a horsewhip, cowskin, switch, or small stick, or by putting irons on, or confining, or imprisoning such slave,]—every such person shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money.' Here is direct legislation to sanction beating without limit, with horsewhip or cowskin,—the application of irons to the human body,—and perpetual incarceration in a dungeon, according to the will of the master; and the mutilation of limbs is paid by a trifling penalty!
"The revised code of Louisiana declares: 'The slave is entirely subject to the will of the master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual rigor, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.'" Who shall decide what punishment is unusual?
In Missouri, if a slave refuses to obey his or her master, mistress, overseer, or employer, in any lawful commands, such slaves may be committed to the county jail, there to remain as long as his owner pleases.