The New York Courier and Inquirer, of November 5th, con-
tained an article which has been quite valuable to the author,
as summing up, in a clear, concise, and intelligible form, the
principal objections which may be urged to "Uncle Tom's
Cabin." It is here quoted in full, as the foundation of the re-
marks in the following pages.

   The author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," that writer states, has
committed false witness against thousands and millions of her
fellow-men.

   She has done it [he says] by attaching to them as slaveholders, in the eyes of
the world, the guilt of the abuses of an institution of which they are absolutely
guiltless. Her story is so devised as to present slavery in three dark aspects:
first, the cruel treatment of the slaves; second, the separation of families; and,
third, their want of religious instruction.

   To show the first, she causes a reward to be offered for the recovery of a run-
away slave, "dead or alive," when no reward with such an alternative was ever
heard of, or dreamed of, south of Mason and Dixon's line, and it has been decided
over the over again in Southern courts that "a slave who is merely flying away
cannot be killed." She puts such language as this into the mouth of one of her
speakers: -- "The master who goes furthest and does the worst only uses within
limits the power that the law gives him;" when, in fact, the civil code of the
very State where it is represented the language was uttered -- Louisiana -- de-
clares that --

   "The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and
chastise him, though not with unusual rigour, nor so as to maim or mutilate him,
on to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death."

   And provides for a compulsory sale --

   "When the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment of his slaves, and the
judge shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the penalty established for such
cases, that the slave be sold at public auction, in order to place him out of the
reach of the power which the master has abused."

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   "If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill his slave, or the slave of another
person, the said person, being convicted thereof, shall be tried and condemned
agreeably to the laws."

   In the General Court of Virginia, last year, in the case of Souther v. Common-
wealth, it was held that the killing of a slave by his master and owner, by wilful
and excessive whipping, is murder in the first degree, though it may not have been
the purpose of the master and owner to kill the slave! And it is not six months
since Governor Johnson, of Virginia, pardoned a slave who killed his master, who
was beating him with brutal severity.

   And yet, in the face of such laws and decisions as these, Mrs. Stowe winds up a
ong series of cruelties upon her other black personages, by causing her faultless
hero, Tom, to be literally whipped to death in Louisiana, by his master, Legree;
and these acts, which the laws make criminal, and punish as such, she sets forth
in the most repulsive colours, to illustrate the institution of slavery.

   So, too, in reference to the separation of children from their parents. A con-
siderable part of the plot is made to hinge upon the selling, in Louisiana, of the
child Eliza, "eight or nine years old," away from her mother; when, had its in-
ventor looked in the statute-book of Louisiana, she would have found the following
language: --

   "Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their mothers
the children who shall not have attained the full age of ten years.

   "Be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall sell the mother of
any slave child or children under the age of ten years, separate from said child or
children, or shall, the mother living, sell any slave child or children of ten years of
age, or under, separate from said mother, said person or persons shall be fined not
less than one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars, and be imprisoned
in the public jail for a period of not less than six months nor more than one
year."

   The privation of religious instruction, as represented by Mrs. Stowe, is utterly
unfounded in fact. The largest churches in the Union consist entirely of slaves.
The first African church in Louisville, which numbers fifteen hundred persons,
and the first African church in Augusta, which numbers thirteen hundred, are
specimens. On multitudes of large plantations in the different parts of the
South, the ordinances of the gospel are as regularly maintained, by competent
ministers, as in any other communities, north or south. A larger proportion of
the slave population are in communion with some Christian church than of the
white population in any part of the country. A very considerable portion of
every Southern congregation, either in city or country, is sure to consist of blacks;
whereas, of our Northern churches, not a coloured person is to be seen in one out
of fifty.

   The peculiar falsity of this whole book consists in making exceptional or
impossible cases the representatives of the system. By the same process which
she has used, it would not be difficult to frame a fatal argument against the rela-
tion of husband and wife, or parent and child, or of guardian and ward; for thou-
sands of wives and children, and wards, have been maltreated, and even murdered.
It is wrong, unpardonably wrong, to impute to any relation of life those enormities
which spring only out of the worst depravity of human nature. A ridiculously
extravagant spirit of generalisation pervades this fiction from beginning to end.
The Uncle Tom of the authoress is a perfect angel, and her blacks generally are

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half angels; her Simon Legree is a perfect demon, and her whites generally are
half demons. She has quite a peculiar spite against the clergy; and, of the many
she introduces at different times into the scenes, all, save an insignificant exception,
are Pharisees or hypocrites. One who could know nothing of the United States
and its people, except by what he might gather from this book, would judge that
it was some region just on the confines of the infernal world. We do not say that
Mrs. Stowe was actuated by wrong motives in the preparation of this work, but
we do say that she has done a wrong which no ignorance can excuse, and no
penance can expiate.

   A much valued correspondent of the author, writing from
Richmond, Virginia, also uses the following language: --

   I will venture this morning to make a few suggestions which have occurred to
me in regard to future editions of your work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which I desire
should have all the influence of which your genius renders it capable, not only
abroad, but in the local sphere of slavery, where it has been hitherto repudiated.
Possessing already the great requisites of artistic beauty and of sympathetic
affection, it may yet be improved in regard to accuracy of statement, without being
at all enfeebled. For example, you do less than justice to the formalised laws of
the Southern States, while you give more credit than is due to the virtue of public
or private sentiment in restricting the evil which the laws permit.

   I enclose the following extracts from a Southern paper: --

   " `I'll manage that ar; they's young in the business, and must 'spect to work
cheap,' said Marks, as he continued to read. `Thar's three on 'em easy cases,
'cause all you've got to do is to shoot 'em, or swear they is shot; they couldn't, of
course, charge much for that.'

   "The reader will observe that two charges against the South are involved
in this precious discourse; one, that it is the habit of Southern masters to
offer a reward, with the alternative of `dead or alive,' for their fugitive slaves;
and the other, that it is usual for pursuers to shoot them. Indeed, we are led
to infer that, as the shooting is the easier mode of obtaining the reward, it is
the more frequently employed in such cases. Now, when a Southern master
offers a reward for his runaway slave, it is because he has lost a certain amount
of property, represented by the negro which he wishes to recover. What man of
Vermont, having an ox or an ass that had gone astray, would forthwith offer half
the full value of the animal, not for the carcase, which might be turned to some
useful purpose, but for the unavailing satisfaction of its head? Yet are the two
cases exactly parallel. With regard to the assumption that men are permitted to
go about, at the South, with double-barrelled guns, shooting down runaway
negroes, in preference to apprehending them, we can only say that it is as wicked
and wilful as it is ridiculous. Such Thugs there may have been as Marks and
Loker, who have killed negroes in this unprovoked manner; but, if they have
escaped the gallows, they are probably to be found within the walls of our State
Penitentiaries, where they are comfortably provided for at public expense. The
laws of the Southern States, which are designed, as in all good governments, for
the protection of persons and property, have not been so loosely framed as to fail
of their object where person and property are one.

   "The law with regard to the killing of runaways is laid down with so much

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clearness and precision by a South Carolina judge, that we cannot forbear quoting
his dictum as directly in point. In the case of Witsell v. Earnest and Parker
Colcock, J., delivered the opinion of the court:

   "By the statute of 1740, any white man may apprehend, and moderately
correct, any slave who may be found out of the plantation at which he is em-
ployed; and if the slave assaults the white person, he may be

   Jan. Term, 1818. 1 Nott. & M`Cord's S. C. Rep., 182.

   killed; but a slave who is merely flying away cannot be killed
Nor can the defendants be justified by the common law if we con-
sider the negro as a person; for they were not clothed with the
authority of the law to apprehend him as a felon, and without
such authority he could not be killed.'

   " `It's commonly supposed that the property interest is a sufficient guard in
these cases. If people choose to ruin their possessions, I don't know what's to
be done. It seems the poor creature was a thief and a drunkard; and so there
won't be much hope to get up sympathy for her.'

   " `It is perfectly outrageous -- it is horrid, Augustine! It will certainly bring
down vengeance upon you.'

   " `My dear cousin, I didn't do it, and I can't help it; I would, if I could. If
low-minded, brutal people will act like themselves, what am I to do? They have
absolute control; they are irresponsible despots. There would be no use in inter-
fering; there is no law that amounts to anything practically, for such a case. The
best we can do is to shut our eyes and ears, and let it alone. It's the only re
source left us.'

   "In a subsequent part of the same conversation St. Clare says --

   " `For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we are men born of women, and
not savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not -- we would scorn to use the
full power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes furthest
and does the worst only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.'

   "Mrs. Stowe tells us, through St. Clare, that `there is no law that amounts
to anything' in such cases, and that he who goes furthest in severity towards his
slave -- that is, to the deprivation of an eye or a limb, or even the destruction of
life -- `only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.' This is an
awful and tremendous charge, which, lightly and unwarrantably made, must sub-
ject the maker to a fearful accountability. Let us see how the matter stands upon
the statute-book of Louisiana. By referring to the civil code of that State, chap-
ter 3rd, article 173, the reader will find this general declaration: --

   " `The slave is entirely subject to the will of his master, who may correct and
chastise him, though not with unusual rigour, nor so as to maim or mutilate him, or
to expose him to the danger of loss of life, or to cause his death.'

   "On a subsequent page of the same volume and chapter, article 192, we find
provision made for the slave's protection against his master's cruelty, in the
statement that one of two cases, in which a master can be compelled to sell his
slave, is --

   " `When the master shall be convicted of cruel treatment of his slave, and the
judge shall deem proper to pronounce, besides the penalty established for such cases, that the slave shall be sold at public auction, in order to place him out of the reach
of the power which the master has abused.'

   "A code thus watchful of the negro's safety in life and limb confines not its
guardianship to inhibitory clauses, but proscribes extreme penalties in case of

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their infraction. In the Code Noir (Black Code) of Louisiana, under head of
Crimes and Offences, No. 55, sec. xvi., it is laid down that --

   " `If any person whatsoever shall wilfully kill his slave, or the slave of another
person, the said person, being convicted thereof, shall be tried and condemned
agreeably to the laws.'

   "And because negro testimony is inadmissible in the court of the State, an
therefore the evidence of such crimes might be with difficulty supplied, it is fur
ther provided that --

   " `If any slave be mutilated, beaten, or ill-treated, contrary to the true intent
and meaning of this Act, when no one shall be present, in such case the owner, or
other person having the management of said slave thus mutilated, shall be deemed
responsible and guilty of the said offence, and shall be prosecuted without further
evidence, unless the said owner, or other person so as aforesaid, can prove the
contrary by means of good and sufficient evidence, or can clear

   Code Noir. Crimes and Offences, 56, xvii.

   himself by his own oath, which said oath every court, under the
cognisance of which such offence shall have been examined and
tried, is by this Act authorised to administer.'

   "Enough has been quoted to establish the utter falsity of the statement, made
by our authoress through St. Clare, that brutal masters are `irresponsible despots'
-- at least, in Louisiana. It would extend our review to a most unreasonable
length, should we undertake to give the law, with regard to the murder of slaves,
as it stands in each of the Southern States. The crime is a rare one, and there-
fore the reporters have had few cases to record. We may refer, however, to two.
In Fields v. The State of Tennessee, the plaintiff in error was indicted in the Circuit
Court of Maury county for the murder of a negro slave. He pleaded not guilty; and
at the trial was found guilty of wilful and felonious slaying of the slave. From
this sentence he prosecuted his writ of error, which was disallowed by the court
affirming the original judgment. The opinion of the court, as given by Peck J.
overflows with the spirit of enlightened humanity. He concludes thus: --

   " `It is well said by one of the judges of North Carolina, that the master has a
right to exact the labour of his slave; thus far, the rights of the

   1 Yerger's Tenn. Rep. 156.

   slave are suspended; but this gives the master no right over the
life of his slave. I add to the saying of the judge, that law which
says Thou shalt not kill, protects the slave; and he is within its
very letter. Law, reason, Christianity, and common humanity, all
point but one way.'

   "In the General Court of Virginia, June Term, 1851, in Souther v. The
Commonwealth, it was held that `the killing of a slave by his master and owner,
by wilful and excessive whipping, is murder in the first degree; though it may not
have been the purpose of the master and owner to kill the slave.

   7 Grattan's Rep. 673.

   The writer shows, also, an ignorance of the law of contracts, as it
affects slavery in the South, in making George's master take him
from the factory against the proprietor's consent. George, by
virtue of the contract of hiring, had become the property of the proprietor for the
time being, and his master could no more have taken him away forcibly than the
owner of a house in Massachusetts can dispossess his lessee, at any moment, from
mere whim or caprice. There is no court in Kentucky, where the hirer's rights,
in this regard, would not be enforced.

   " `No. Father bought her once, in one of his trips to New Orleans, and

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Collation: K
brought her up as a present to mother. She was about eight or nine years old
then. Father would never tell mother what he gave for her; but, the other day,
in looking over his old papers, we came across the bill of sale. He paid an ex-
travagant sum for her, to be sure. I suppose, on account of her extraordinary
beauty.'

   " `George sat with his back to Cassy, and did not see the absorbed expression
of her countenance, as he was giving these details.

   " `At this point in the story, she touched his arm, and, with a face perfectly
white with interest, said, `Do you know the names of the people he bought
her of?'

   " `A man of the name of Simmons, I think, was the principal in the transaction.
At least, I think that was the name in the bill of sale.'

   " `O my God!' said Cassy, and fell insensible on the floor of the cabin.'

   "Of course Eliza turns out to be Cassy's child, and we are soon entertained
with the family meeting in Montreal, where George Harris is living, five or six
years after the opening of the story, in great comfort.

   "Now, the reader will perhaps be surprised to know that such an incident as
the sale of Cassy apart from Eliza, upon which the whole interest of the foregoing
narrative hinges, never could have taken place in Louisiana, and that the bill of
sale for Eliza would not have been worth the paper it was written on. Observe.
George Shelby states that Eliza was eight or nine years old at the time his father
purchased her in New Orleans. Let us again look at the statute-book of
Louisiana.

   "In the Code Noir we find it set down that --

   " `Every person is expressly prohibited from selling separately from their
mothers the children who shall not have attained the full age of ten years.'

   "And this humane provision is strengthened by a statute, one clause of which
runs as follows: --

   " `Be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall sell the mother of
any slave child or children under the age of ten years, separate from said child or
children, or shall, the mother living, sell any slave child or children of ten years
of age or under, separate from said mother, such person or persons shall incur the
penalty of the sixth section of this Act.'

   "This penalty is a fine of not less than one thousand nor more than two thou-
sand dollars, and imprisonment in the public jail for a period of not less than six
months, nor more than one year. -- Vide Act of Louisiana, 1 Session, 9th Legislature, 1828, 1829, No. 24, Section 16."

   The author makes here a remark. Scattered through all the
Southern States are slaveholders who are such only in name.
They have no pleasure in the system, they consider it one of
wrong altogether, and they hold the legal relation still, only
because not yet clear with regard to the best way of changing
it, so as to better the condition of those held. Such are most
earnest advocates for State emancipation, and are friends of
anything, written in a right spirit, which tends in that direction.
From such the author ever receives criticisms with pleasure.

   She has endeavoured to lay before the world, in the fullest

   When writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin," though entirely un-
aware and unexpectant of the importance which would be
attached to its statements and opinions, the author of that work
was anxious, from love of consistency, to have some under-
standing of the laws of the slave system. She had on hand
for reference, while writing, the Code Noir of Louisiana, and a
sketch of the laws relating to slavery in the different States, by
Judge Stroud of Philadelphia. This work, professing to have
been compiled with great care from the latest editions of the
statute-books of the several States, the author supposed to be a
sufficient guide for the writing of a work of fiction.* As the
accuracy of those statements which relate to the slave-laws
has been particularly contested, a more especial inquiry has
been made in this direction. Under the guidance and with the
assistance of legal gentlemen of high standing, the writer has
proceeded to examine the statements of Judge Stroud with
regard to statute-law, and to follow them up with some inquiry
into the decisions of Courts. The result has been an increasing
conviction on her part that the impressions first derived from
Judge Stroud's work were correct; and the author now can only
give the words of St. Clare, as the best possible expression of the
sentiments and opinion which this course of reading has
awakened in her mind.

   This cursed business, accursed of God and man -- what is it? Strip it of all its
ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it? Why,
because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong
-- because I know how, and can do it -- therefore I may steal all he has, keep it, and
give him only such and so much as suits my fancy! Whatever is too hard, too
dirty, too disagreeable for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I don't like
work, Quashy shall work. Because the sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in the sun.
Quashy shall earn the money, and I will spend it. Quashy shall lie down in every
puddle, that I may walk over dry-shod. Quashy shall do my will, and not his, all
the days of his mortal life, and have such a chance of getting to heaven at last as
I find convenient. This I take to be about what slavery is. I defy anybody on
earth to read our slave-code, as it stands in our law books, and make anything
else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the
essence of all abuse. And the only reason why the land don't sink under it, like
Sodom and Gomorrah, is because it is used in a way infinitely better than it is.
For pity's sake, for shame's sake, because we are men born of women, and not

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savage beasts, many of us do not, and dare not -- we would scorn to use the full
power which our savage laws put into our hands. And he who goes the furthest,
and does the worst, only uses within limits the power that the law gives him!

   The author still holds to the opinion that slavery in itself, as
legally defined in law-books and expressed in the records of
Courts, is the sum and essence of all abuse; and she
still clings to the hope that there are many men at the South
infinitely better than their laws; and after the reader has read
all the extracts which she has to make, for the sake of a common
humanity they will hope the same. The author must state, with
regard to some pages which she must quote, that the lan-
guage of certain enactments was so incredible that she would
not take it on the authority of any compilation whatever, but
copied it with her own hand from the latest edition of the
statute-book where it stood and still stands.

   * In this connexion it may be well to state that the work of Judge Stroud is
now out of print, but that a work of the same character is in course of preparation
by William I. Bowditch, Esq., of Boston, which will bring the subject out, by the
assistance of the latest editions of statutes, and the most recent decisions of
Courts.