It appeared, on
questioning Captain Frazer afterward, that this boy had previously run
away from his master three several times; that the master had to pay his
value, according to the custom of the country, every time he was brought
back; and that partly from anger at the boy for running away so
frequently, and partly to prevent a repetition of the same expense, he
determined to destroy him. Such was the explanation of the signal
instance, which was to fix barbarity on all Africa, as it came out in
the cross-examination of Captain Frazer. That this African master was
unenlightened and barbarous, he freely admitted; but what would an
enlightened and civilized West Indian have done in a similar case? He
would quote the law, passed in the West Indies in 1722, which he had
just cast his eye upon in the book of evidence, by which law this very
same crime of running away was by the legislature, of an island, by the
grave and deliberate sentence of an enlightened legislature, punished
with death; and this, not in the case only of the third offence, but
even in the very first instance. It was enacted, "That, if any Negro or
other slave should withdraw himself from his master for the term of six
months, or any slave, who was absent, should not return within that
time, every such person should suffer death.
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