CHAPTER VII.
"SOUL-DRIVING."
"A negro speculator, or a soul-driver as they are generally called among slaves."—Wm. W. Brown's Narrative, p. 39.
If we would most effectually degrade a man, we need only trample on the highest and holiest of all his rights,—his right to himself; we have only to make him the subject of barter and sale, a thing for speculators to make money on, for jockeys to deceive about, and for buyers to depreciate. And yet how few act as if they admitted this truth, or even faintly realized the enormity of this wrong!
Slaves, as subjects of property, are continually spoken of and treated as horses and cows, and other live-stock! Tens of thousands of advertisements might be adduced to prove this. We have room only for a very few proofs. The Civil Code of Louisiana provides:—
"Art. 2500. The latent defects of slaves and animals are divided into two classes,—vices of body and vices of character.
"Art. 2501. The vices of body are distinguished into absolute and relative....
"Art. 2502. The absolute vices of slaves are leprosy, madness, and epilepsy.
"Art 2503. The absolute vices of horses and mules are short wind, glanders, and founder."