PREFACE.
More than two hundred years have elapsed since the
first cargo of slaves was landed on the banks of the
James River, in the colony of Virginia, from the
West coast of Africa. From the introduction of
slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation
of the Colonies from the British Crown, the number
had increased to five hundred thousand; now there
are nearly four million. In fifteen of the thirty-one States, Slavery is made lawful by the Constitution,
which binds the several States into one confederacy.
On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, the negro is considered common property, on which any white man may lay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population of the United States, North and South, are bound by their oath to the constitution, and their adhesion to the Fugitive Slave Law, to hunt down the runaway