Both its inexpediency and injustice had been established by the honourable mover.

He dwelt much on the unhappy situation of the Negros in the West Indies, who were without the protection of government or of efficient laws, and subject to the mere caprice of men, who were at once the parties, the judges, and the executioners.
He instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a Negro into a copper of boiling cane-juice for a trifling offence, was punished merely by the loss of his place, and by being obliged to pay the value of the slave.

He stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who was dreadfully whipped for coming too late to her work.

She fell down motionless after it; and was then dragged along the ground, by the legs, to an hospital; where she died.
The murderer, though tried, was acquitted by a jury of his peers, upon the idea, that it was impossible a master could destroy his own property.

This was a notorious fact.