You will
observe, Captain, the penalty is not desired by our people, the
object being to prevent them from returning, and as such it must
be taken in the spirit of its origin. Another very wise provision
was made by our legislators, and which has prevented a great deal of
suffering on the part of the slave. A few years ago, our wise
legislature made a law to revert the power of emancipation from the
board of magistrates where it had been very much abused, to the
House itself. And such is the law at the present day, that no master
can give his slaves their freedom, except by special act of the
legislature, and that with such a multiplicity of provisions and
conditions that few even attempt it. But I'm about to refer to cases
in which some modification might be said to have been necessary,
because in them are embodied the worst germs for abolition
speculation.
"That, Captain, is Jones's Hotel," said the Colonel, pointing to an
odd-looking house of antique and mixed architecture, with a large
convex window above the hall-entrance, in the second story. This
house is situated in Broad street, next to the aristocratic St.
Michael's Church, one of the most public places in the city. "In
years past, that house was kept by Jones, a free nigger. Jones was
almost white, a fine portly-looking man, active, enterprising,
intelligent, honest to the letter, and whose integrity and
responsibility was never doubted.
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