"NEGROES TO HIRE.--On Wednesday, the 26th inst. I will hire to the highest bidder the negroes belonging to Charles and Robert Innes. GEO. W. WILLIAMS, Guardian."
"NEGRO HIRINGS.--Will be offered for hire, at Capt. Long's Hotel, a number of slaves, men, women, boys, and girls, belonging to the orphans of George Ash, deceased. RICHARD W. BARTON, Guardian."
The law forbids teaching slaves to read and write. Dr. Fuller may disregard the law, and give his slaves careful instruction, supplying them with plenty of books, and allowing them time to read in. The law denies marriage to the slaves, and pays no heed to their family ties. Dr. Fuller may consecrate with the utmost care the marriage of his slaves, and sacredly protect their family relations. The law declares slaves to be, under all circumstances, saleable articles. Dr. Fuller may think that he treats them as men, and shudder at the thought of selling them. Thus may he do in his lifetime; but it is appointed unto all men to die; and what, in the event of his death, will become of his slaves?
He may possibly leave a will, bequeathing them, upon the condition that his kind and humane treatment shall be continued, that they shall be taught to read and write, that their marriages and family relations shall be sacredly respected, and that they shall never be subject to be sold; that is, on the condition that his legatees shall break the law, as he has done. The only result will be, that the law will declare all such conditions to be utterly void; and the legatees will own the slaves, entirely freed from all such conditions. The legatees will be under no other restraints than those imposed by the law, public opinion, and their own conscience. The latter restraint only may possibly avail the slaves; and their happy condition may be continued, _if_ all the legatees are, like Dr. Fuller, law-defying, humane, kind-hearted, and above want! But how unlikely is it that such will be the case! How much more unlikely is it that such a state of things will continue! And yet, unless such a state of things exists, and continues to exist, Dr. Fuller's slaves must inevitably become as degraded as the great mass of their fellows.
If he should die intestate, then his slaves, as part of his estate, would have to be duly administered on and distributed among the heirs-at-law. The administrator, a mere trustee, could not, as we have seen, safely continue Dr. Fuller's plan of management; nor can it be supposed that any administrator would follow it. If it became necessary or expedient in order to pay debts, husbands would be separated from wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters. The widow (if any) would be entitled to a life-estate in one-third of the slaves, which one-third would be assigned to her in severalty, even though this might involve a separation of families; for the common law of the Slave States makes the same profession as the common law of England, that it favors three things,--life, liberty, and dower! The remaining slaves, and the reversion of those assigned to the widow, would belong to the heirs, and would have to be equally divided between them, not divided by families, or even _per capita_, but so that each heir should have an equally valuable slave-investment, or an equal share in the property of the deceased. If the heirs should be numerous, or the slaves few, so that an equal division of them could not be thus made, they would have to be sold, and their proceeds equally divided. Such sales must be common. The following is taken from the "Georgia Journal:"--