Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina

ve for the ancestral relics of a gone-by age. Nothing could point with more unerring aim than these sombre monuments do, to the distance behind the age that marks the thoughts and actions of th

mayor his defeat at the following hustings. "Young Charleston" was rebuked for its daring progress, and the building is marked by the singular cognomen of "Hutchinson's Folly." What is somewhat singular, this magnificent building is exclusively for negroes. One fact will show how progressive has been the science of law to govern the negro, while those to which the white man is subjected are such as good old England conferred upon them some c

, and on both sides of a narrow portal leading to the right are four small cells and a filthy-looking kitchen, resembling an old-fashioned smoke-house. These cells are the debtors'; and as we were passing out, after visiting a friend, a lame "molatto-fellow" with scarcely rags to cover his nakedness, and filthy beyond description, stood at what was called the kitchen door. "That poor dejected object," said our fri

im, and said, "Massa, gin poor Abe a piece o' 'b

rimes as assault and battery; assault and battery, with intent to kill; refractory seamen; deserters; violating the statutes; suspicion of arson and murder; witnesses; all sorts of crimes, varying from the debtor to the positive murderer, burglar, and felon. We should have enumerated, among the rest, all stewards, (colored,) whether foreign or domestic, who are committed on that singular charge, "contrary to law." And it should have been added, even though cast away upon our "hospitable shores." Among all these different shades of criminals, there must be some very bad men. And we could recount three who were pointed out to us, as very d

jailer reserved for himself exclusively. The principle may seem a strange one, that places men confined upon such

the man marked the weary moments of his durance. We spoke with many of the prisoners, and heard their different stories, some of which were really painful. Their crimes were variously stated, from that of murder, arson, and picking pockets, down to the felon who had stolen a pair of shoes to cover his feet; one had stolen a pair of pantaloons, and a little boy had stolen a few door-keys. Three boys were undergoing their sentence for murder. A man of genteel appearance, who had been sentenced to three years imprisonment, and to receive two hundred and twenty lashes in the market, at different periods, complained bitterly of the injustice of his case. Some had been flogged in the market, and were awaiting their time to be flogged again and discharged; and others were confined on suspicion, and had been kept in this close durance for more than six months, awaiting trial. We noticed that this worst of injustice, "the law's delay," was felt worse by those confined on the suspicion of some pal

which, with the action of the damp, heated atmosphere of that climate, was of itself enough to breed contagion. We spoke of the want of ventilation and the noxious fumes that seemed almost pestilential, but they seemed to have become habituated

y the cravings of his appetite, and awoke to grieve that it was but a dream. In this manner his appetite was doubly aggravated, yet he could get nothing to appease its wants until the next morning. To add to this cruelty, we found two men in close confinement, the most emaciated and abject specimens of humanity we have ever beheld. We asked ourselves, "Lord God! was it to be that humanity should descend so low?" The first was a forlorn, dejected-looking creature, with a downcast countenance, containing little of the human to mark his features. His face was covered with hair, and so completely matted with dirt and made fiendish by the tufts of coarse hair that hung over his forehead, that a thrill of horror invaded our fee

d motioned his fevered lips. "Speak out!" said we, "perhaps we can get you out." "I had no shoes

"a pair of boots! and is t

a good man: 't wasn't his fault, because he tried to get m

e you been thus c

room up stairs. They've been promising me some cloth

r have you to stop

he grand jury'll visit the jail then, and maybe they'll find a bill' against me,

e that man peace to enjoy his bounty, who would cons

e poor-house, and I work about the city for a living, when I'm out!" said he. There was food for refl

enough to ea

y for that. I git me loaf' in the mornin', and me soup at twelve, but I don't git nothi

eeing any thing to sleep upon, curio

quite contentedly. We left the poor wretch, for our feelings could withstand it no longer. The state of society that

ad been in jail very near four months, and in regard to filth and vermin was a counterpart of the other. A death-like smell, so offensive that we stopped upon t

ted to the same fare. In the yard were a number of very close cells, which, as we have said before, were kept for negroes, refractory criminals, and those condemned to c