ither custom or law prohibits them [i.e. the slaves] the acquisition o

but this we can see, he has secured the education of those who, to all human appearance, would not and could not have been educated in any other way. There are now in this country more than three hundred thousand Africans who can read and write, who could not have done it if it had not been for the slave-trade. There are many in this country and in Liberia who are capable of preaching the gospel, editing papers, and performing all the duties of civil life, who must have remained in total da

they held dear, and brought to this country, through all the horrors of the middle passage, where a terrible death relieved on an average at least one fifth of the victims from a scarcely less terrible life,-for this end in part, that, after two c

certain point. Without some education, a slave would be worse than valueless. Far the larger number of them, as field slaves, are simply taught to use the hoe, and other instruments of agriculture. Others are brought up as carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, house-servants, &c. Frederick Douglass earned a dollar and a

penter, fully guarantied; Jacob, 25 years, a superior carpenter and wheelwright, fully guarantied; Dick, 35 years, a superior carpenter and wheelwright, fully guarantied; Charles, 28 years, engineer and rough carpenter; Charles, 22 years, fie

ing interest eight per cent per annum, from date of sale until paid. Slaves not to be delivered until the notes are approved of.

25, 1848, Benjamin Davis advertises for sale a negro man "who is a first-rate carpenter by trade; also a rough blacksmith." In t

ime and likely bl

erior washer, and go

e axeman an

ior man

valuable working machine. To have him educated farther, to have taught him to read or write, would have lessened his market value. To teach a slave these things is to teach him his rights, and to make him keenly feel his wrongs. Mrs. Hugh Auld taught Frederick Douglass his letters before slavery had hardened her naturally kind heart. She gave him the inch, as he says, and

ontemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I could at times feel that learning to read had been a curse, rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened m

s eyes would never have been fully opened to the extent of his wrongs; and what is true of him is true of all other slaves. A

refractory and disobedient. A late writer in the "Charleston Mercury" admit

s so. It needed no great scope of argument to satisfy those who framed our laws, that the expansion of intellect, the hundred influ

ave's value as property daily diminishes. So true is this, that in Louisiana a buyer may legally refuse to take a slave, if he has only "absented himself from his master's house twice for several days, or once for more than a month." The "Civil Code" (Art. 2496, 250

is refractory or disobedient, or who runs away at every opportunity,-unless, indeed, he buys the stock, in consequence, at very much under par! The value of Douglass as a slave decreased just as fast as his manhood increased; and

s hands? None but an educated slave can plan or head an insurrection. Such are the ones who always do take active part in rebellions. The house-servants constitute everywhere the most educated class. None are more dreaded than th

ing the habitual transactions of their owners, afford them the most ample means for treacherous bloodshed and devastation. The success, therefore, of servile conspiracies mainly depends on this class for taking off, by midnight murder, their un

fety of their wives and children, impels the s

e commission of so much wrong everywhere, what will not both motives together accomplish to the injury of the slave? But the slaveholders have not been willing to trust wholly to these motives, strong though they are. In many of the

ina, chap. 34, sec. 74 ("Revision of

e liable to indictment in any court of record in this State having jurisdiction thereof; and, upon conviction, shall, at the discretion of the court, if a white man or woman, be fined not less than one hundred dollars

tatute, 1830, chap. 6

of figures excepted, he or she may be carried before any justice of the peace, and, on con

ro Act" (1740, § 45; "2 Bre

o write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to writ

2, chap. 8, § 10; "Clay'

to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in

3th div., sec. 18; "Prince's Digest," p. 658; "Wil

ffer, or permit a slave, negro, or person of color, to transact business for him in writing, such person so offending shall be guilty of a misdem

oward & Hutchinson

r can be employed in the setting

Statutes" (chap. 8, sec.

pprentice to be taught to read or write, or a knowledge of arithmetic; but he shall be allowed, at the ex

(approved Feb.

for the instruction of negroes or mulatt

light, the opportunities presented for the mental instruction of slaves! In s

so. The law of compensation is divine. We cannot degrade or brutalize our fellow-men, without degrading or brutalizing ourselves. Now, we find that, in the Slave States, almost one tenth of the free white population over twenty years of age are unable to read and write! To some persons this may seem a small proportion; but, in the Free States, with all our ignorance, there are less than one in one hundred and fifty! and Horace Mann, the best authority on this subject, says that "at least four fifths of these are foreigners, who ought not to be included in the computation." In Connecticut, out of 163,843 free persons over twenty years of age, there are only 526 who are unable to read and write; while, in the model Slave State of South Carolina, out of only 111,663 free white persons over twenty years of age, there are 20,615 who cannot read and write! "In South Carolina," says Theodore Parker, "out of each 626 free whites more than twenty years of age, there are more than 58 wholly unable to read or write; out of that number