Slave Control Quotes
For a slave to run away, capital punishment was not only authorized, but ANY white could execute the runaway, without even a trial. Needless to say that many slaves who were not runaways were killed.
Generally, Jefferson was not in favor of whipping slaves, but this quotation shows that he essentially accepted the basic principles of Southern Slavery—including the one that says if the person does not want to work for you, you may whip, beat, or torture him or her to produce “reasonable work.” This acceptance of slavery and profiting from it, is the terrible blot on the record of the man who otherwise was among the few greatest of Americans.
This law, though clearly unconstitutional by modern legal standards, was used by the abolitionists to illustrate that slavery, in addition to infringing on the freedom and rights of Negroes, also curtailed the rights of white people who could not even read certain Biblical passages from the pulpit if a Negro was present. Virginia and North Carolina had similar laws except that they were more liberal. The death penalty could only be meted out for a second offense.
