The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where the master is willing to enfranchise them.
Angelina Emily Grimké
The Public Record
Angelina Emily Grimké Weld was an American abolitionist, political activist, women's rights advocate, and supporter of the women's suffrage movement. At one point she was the best known, or "most notorious," woman in the country. She and her sister Sarah Moore Grimké were considered the only notable examples of white Southern women abolitionists. The sisters lived together as adults, while Angelina was the wife of abolitionist leader Theodore Dwight Weld.
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The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations.
Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, though cruel treatment may have' rendered such a change necessary for their personal safety.
The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under any circumstances, his only safety consists in the fact that his owner may bring suit and recover the price of his body, in case his life is taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor.
The slave may be punished at his master's discretion--without trial--without any means of legal redress; whether his offence be real or imaginary; and the master can transfer the same despotic power to any person or persons, he may choose…
Their own honest earnings and the legacies of friends belong in point of law to their masters.
Slaves can make no contracts and have no legal right to any property, real or personal.
Sold at auction, either individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser, he may remain with his family, or be separated from them for ever.
He may be exchanged for marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts or taxes either of a living or dead master.
The slave being considered a personal chattel may be sold or pledged, or leased at the will of his master.
The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are dictated solely by the master.
Slavery is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the slave's earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest posterity.