The case is now presented, as narrated12 from the published reports, by Dr. Bailey, editor of the National Era; a man whose candor13 and fairness need no indorsing, as every line that he writes speaks for itself.
The reader may at first be surprised to find slave testimony14 in the court, till he recollects15 that it is a slave that is on trial, the testimony of slaves being only null when it concerns whites.
AN INTERESTING TRIAL.
We find in one of the Raleigh (North Carolina) papers, of June 5, 1851, a report of an interesting trial, at the spring term of the Superior Court. Mima, a slave, was indicted16 for the murder of her master, William Smith, of Johnston County, on the night of the 29th of November, 1850. The evidence for the prosecution was Sidney, a slave-boy, twelve years old, who testified that, in the night, he and a slave-girl, named Jane, were roused from sleep by the call of their master, Smith, who had returned home. They went out, and found Mima tied to his horse’s neck, with two ropes, one round her neck, the other round her hands. Deceased carried her into the house, jerking the rope fastened to her neck, and tied her to a post. He called for something to eat, threw her a piece of bread, and, after he had done, beat her on her naked back with a large piece of light-wood, giving her many hard blows. In a short time, deceased went out of the house, for a special purpose, witness accompanying him with a torchlight, and hearing him say that he intended “to use the prisoner up.” The light was extinguished, and he re?ntered the house for the purpose of lighting17 it. Jane was there; but the prisoner had been untied18, and was not there. While lighting his torch, he heard blows outside, and heard the deceased cry out, two or three times, “O, Leah! O, Leah!” Witness and Jane went out, saw the deceased bloody19 and struggling, were frightened, ran back, and shut themselves up. Leah, it seems, was mother of the prisoner, and had run off two years, on account of cruel treatment by the deceased.
Smith was speechless and unconscious till he died, the following morning, of the wounds inflicted20 on him.
It was proved on the trial that Carroll, a white man, living about a mile from the house of the deceased, and whose wife was said to be the illegitimate daughter of Smith, had in his possession, the morning of the murder, the receipt given the deceased by sheriff High, the day before, for jail fees, and a note for thirty-five dollars, due deceased from one Wiley Price, which Carroll collected a short time thereafter; also the chest-keys of the deceased; and no proof was offered to show how Carroll came into possession of these articles.
The following portion of the testimony discloses facts so horrible, and so disgraceful to the people who tolerated, in broad daylight, conduct which would have shamed the devil, that we copy it just as we find it in the Raleigh paper. The scene, remember, is the city of Raleigh.
“The defence was then opened. James Harris, C. W. D. Hutchings, and Hon. W. H. Haywood, of Raleigh; John Cooper, of Wake; Joseph Hane and others, of Johnston, were examined for the prisoner. The substance of their testimony was as follows: On the forenoon of Friday, 29th of November last, deceased took prisoner from Raleigh jail, tied her round the neck and wrist; ropes were then latched22 to the horse’s neck; he cursed the prisoner several times, got on his horse, and started off; when he got opposite the Telegraph office, on Fayetteville-street, he pulled her shoes and stockings off, cursed her again, went off in a swift trot23, the prisoner running after him, doing apparently24 all she could to keep up; passed round by Peck’s store; prisoner seemed very humble25 and submissive; took down the street east of the capitol, going at the rate of five miles an hour; continued this gait until he passed O. Rork’s corner, about half or three-quarters of a mile from the capitol; that he reached Cooper’s (one of the witnesses), thirteen miles from Raleigh, 105about four o’clock, P. M.; that it was raining very hard; deceased got off his horse, turned it loose with prisoner tied to its neck; witness went to take deceased’s horse to stable; heard great lamentations at the house; hurried back; saw his little daughter running through the rain from the house, much frightened; got there; deceased was gouging26 prisoner in the eyes, and she making outcries; made him stop; became vexed27, and insisted upon leaving; did leave in a short time, in the rain, sun about an hour high; when he left, prisoner was tied as she was before; her arms and fingers were very much swollen28; the rope around her wrist was small, and had sunk deep into the flesh, almost covered with it; that around the neck was large, and tied in a slipknot; deceased would jerk it every now and then; when jerked, it would choke prisoner; she was barefoot and bleeding; deceased was met some time after dark, in about six miles of home, being twenty-four or twenty-five from Raleigh.”
Why did they not strike the monster to the earth, and punish him for his infernal brutality29?
The attorney-general conducted the prosecution with evident loathing30. The defence argued, first, that the evidence was insufficient31 to fasten the crime upon the prisoner; secondly32, that, should the jury be satisfied beyond a rational doubt that the prisoner committed the act charged, it would yet be only manslaughter.
“A single blow between equals would mitigate33 a killing34 instanter from murder to manslaughter. It could not, in law, be anything more, if done under the furor35 brevis of passion. But the rule was different as between master and slave. It was necessary that this should be, to preserve the subordination of the slave. The prisoner’s counsel then examined the authorities at length, and contended that the prisoner’s case came within the rule laid down in The State v. Will (1 Dev. and Bat. 121). The rule there given by Judge Gaston is this: ‘If a slave, in defence of his life, and under circumstances strongly calculated to excite his passions of terror and resentment36, kill his overseer or master, the homicide is, by such circumstances, mitigated37 to manslaughter.’ The cruelties of the deceased to the prisoner were grievous and long-continued. They would have shocked a barbarian38. The savage39 loves and thirsts for blood; but the acts of civilized40 life have not afforded him such refinement41 of torture as was here exhibited.”
The attorney-general, after discussing the law, appealed to the jury “not to suffer the prejudice which the counsel for the defence had attempted to create against the deceased (whose conduct, he admitted, was disgraceful to human nature) to influence their judgments42 in deciding whether the act of the prisoner was criminal or not, and what degree of criminality attached to it. He desired the prisoner to have a fair and impartial44 trial. He wished her to receive the benefit of every rational doubt. It was her right, however humble her condition; he hoped he had not that heart, as he certainly had not the right by virtue45 of his office, to ask in her case for anything more than he would ask from the highest and proudest of the land on trial, that the jury should decide according to the evidence, and vindicate46 the violated law.”
These were honorable sentiments.
After an able charge by Judge Ellis, the jury retired47, and, after having remained out several hours, returned with a verdict of Not Guilty. Of course, we see not how they could hesitate to come to this verdict at once.
The correspondent who furnishes the Register with a report of the case says:
“It excited an intense interest in the community in which it occurred, and, although it develops a series of cruelties shocking to human nature, the result of the trial, nevertheless, vindicates48 the benignity49 and justice of our laws towards that class of our population whose condition Northern fanaticism50 has so carefully and grossly misrepresented, for their own purposes of selfishness, agitation51, and crime.”
We have no disposition52 to misrepresent the condition of the slaves, or to disparage53 the laws of North Carolina; but we ask, with a sincere desire to know the truth, Do the laws of North Carolina allow a master to practise such horrible cruelties upon his slaves as Smith was guilty of, and would the public sentiment of the city of Raleigh permit a repetition of such enormities as were perpetrated in its streets, in the light of day, by that miscreant54?
In conclusion, as the accounts of these various trials contain so many shocking incidents and particulars the author desires to enter a caution against certain mistaken uses which may be made of them, by well-intending persons. The crimes themselves, which form the foundation of the trials, are not to be considered and spoken of as specimens55 of the common working of the slave system. They are, it is true, the logical and legitimate21 fruits of a system which makes every individual owner an irresponsible despot. But the actual number of them, compared with the whole number of masters, we take pleasure in saying, is small. It is an injury to the cause of freedom to ground the argument against slavery upon the frequency with which such scenes as these occur. It misleads the popular mind as to the real issue of the subject. To hear many men talk, one would think that they supposed that unless negroes actually were whipped or burned alive at the rate of two or three dozen a week, there was no harm in slavery. They seem to see nothing in the system but its gross bodily abuses. If these are absent, they think there is no harm in it. They do not consider that the twelve hours’ torture of some poor victim, bleeding away his life, drop by drop, under the hands of a Souther, is only a symbol of that more atrocious process by which the divine, immortal56 soul is mangled57, burned, lacerated, thrown down, stamped upon, and suffocated58, by the fiend-like force of the tyrant59 Slavery. And as, when the torturing work was done, and the poor soul flew up to the judgment43-seat, to stand there in awful witness, there was not a vestige60 of humanity left in 106that dishonored body, nor anything by which it could be said, “See, this was a man!”—so, when Slavery has finished her legitimate work upon the soul, and trodden out every spark of manliness61, and honor, and self-respect, and natural affection, and conscience, and religious sentiment, then there is nothing left in the soul, by which to say, “This was a man!” and it becomes necessary for judges to construct grave legal arguments to prove that the slave is a human being.
Such extreme cases of bodily abuse from the despotic power of slavery are comparatively rare. Perhaps they may be paralleled by cases brought to light in the criminal jurisprudence of other countries. They might, perhaps, have happened anywhere; at any rate, we will concede that they might. But where under the sun did such TRIALS, of such cases, ever take place, in any nation professing62 to be free and Christian63? The reader of English history will perhaps recur64 to the trials under Judge Jeffries, as a parallel. A moment’s reflection will convince him that there is no parallel between the cases. The decisions of Jeffries were the decisions of a monster, who violently wrested65 law from its legitimate course, to gratify his own fiendish nature. The decisions of American slave-law have been, for the most part, the decisions of honorable and humane66 men, who have wrested from their natural course the most humane feelings, to fulfil the mandates67 of a cruel law.
In the case of Jeffries, the sacred forms of the administration of justice were violated. In the case of the American decisions, every form has been maintained. Revolting to humanity as these decisions appear, they are strictly68 logical and legal.
Therefore, again, we say, Where, ever, in any nation professing to be civilized and Christian, did such TRIALS, of such cases, take place? When were ever such legal arguments made? When, ever, such legal principles judicially69 affirmed? Was ever such a trial held in England as that in Virginia, of Souther v. The Commonwealth70? Was it ever necessary in England for a judge to declare on the bench, contrary to the opinion of a lower court, that the death of an apprentice71, by twelve hours’ torture from his master, did amount to murder in the first degree? Was such a decision, if given, accompanied by the affirmation of the principle, that any amount of torture inflicted by the master, short of the point of death, was not indictable? Not being read in English law, the writer cannot say; but there is strong impression from within that such a decision as this would have shaken the whole island of Great Britain; and that such a case as Souther v. The Commonwealth would never have been forgotten under the sun. Yet it is probable that very few persons in the United States ever heard of the case, or ever would have heard of it, had it not been quoted by the New York Courier and Enquirer72 as an overwhelming example of legal humanity.
The horror of the whole matter is, that more than one such case should ever need to happen in a country, in order to make the whole community feel, as one man, that such power ought not to be left in the hands of a master. How many such cases do people wish to have happen?—how many must happen, before they will learn that utter despotic power is not to be trusted in any hands? If one white man’s son or brother had been treated in this way, under the law of apprenticeship73, the whole country would have trembled, from Louisiana to Maine, till that law had been altered. They forget that the black man has also a father. It is “He that sitteth upon the circle of the heavens, who bringeth the princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.” He hath said that “When he maketh inquisition for blood, he FORGETTETH NOT the cry of the humble.” That blood which has fallen so despised to the earth,—that blood which lawyers have quibbled over, in the quiet of legal nonchalance74, discussing in great ease whether it fell by murder in the first or second degree,—HE will one day reckon for as the blood of his own child. He “is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward;” but the day of vengeance75 is surely coming, and the year of his redeemed76 is in his heart.
Another court will sit upon these trials, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. It will be not alone Souther, and such as he, that will be arraigned77 there; but all those in this nation, north and south, who have abetted78 the system, and made the laws which MADE Souther what he was. In that court negro testimony will be received, if never before; and the judges and the counsellors, and the chief men, and the mighty79 men, marshalled to that awful bar, will say to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath80 of the Lamb.”
The wrath of the Lamb! Think of it! Think that Jesus Christ has been present, a witness,—a silent witness through every such scene of torture and anguish81,—a silent witness in every such court, calmly hearing the evidence given in, the lawyers pleading, the bills filed, and cases appealed! And think what a heart Jesus Christ has, and with what age-long patience he has suffered! What awful depths are there in that word, LONG-SUFFERING! and what must be that wrath, when, after ages of endurance, this dread accumulation of wrong and anguish comes up at last to judgment!
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1
equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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pervert
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| n.堕落者，反常者；vt.误用，滥用；使人堕落，使入邪路 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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recollects
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| v.记起，想起( recollect的第三人称单数 ) | |
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indicted
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| 控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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latched
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| v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上） | |
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trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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gouging
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| n.刨削[槽]v.凿( gouge的现在分词 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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furor
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| n.狂热；大骚动 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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mitigated
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| v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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barbarian
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| n.野蛮人；adj.野蛮(人)的；未开化的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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judgments
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| 判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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vindicates
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| n.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的名词复数 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的第三人称单数 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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benignity
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| n.仁慈 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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disparage
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| v.贬抑，轻蔑 | |
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miscreant
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| n.恶棍 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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suffocated
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| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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61
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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judicially
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| 依法判决地，公平地 | |
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commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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71
apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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enquirer
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| 寻问者，追究者 | |
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apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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74
nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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75
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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76
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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arraigned
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| v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责 | |
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78
abetted
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| v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持 | |
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79
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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80
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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81
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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