In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Georgia.

C. SHERMAN & SON, PRINTERS, PHILADELPHIA.

ΤΟ

HON. JOSEPH HENRY BUMPKIN, LL.D.,

PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA,

WHO IN HIS LIFE HAS ILLUSTRATED

THE PROFOUND LAWYER, THE ELOQUENT ADVOCATE,

THE IRREPROACHABLE JUDGE,

AND THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER,

WITH SENTIMENTS OF PROFOUND ADMIRATION FOR HIS VIRTUES,

GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS,

AND SINCERE AFFECTION FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,

I dedicate this Work.

PREFACE.

I ENTER upon an untrodden field. Stroud's "Sketch of the Law of Slavery" is and was intended only as an Abolition pamphlet; Wheeler's "Law of Slavery" professes to be only a compend of abridged decisions on prominent questions. An elementary treatise, purporting to define the Law of Slavery as it exists in the United States, has not been brought to my notice.

As a pioneer I doubt not I have, like others, frequently deviated from the true course. Reflection has induced me to change many positions which I had committed to paper. Subsequent reflection, and the exposition of other minds, may induce me to change some now committed to the public.

This work has been prepared at leisure hours, in the midst of a laborious practice. These have varied in length from a few moments to a few days. The natural result-disconnection and incoherency -may be detected by experienced eyes.

Residing in an interior village, I have felt the want of access to extended libraries. I have taken advantage of occasional sojourns in the cities of

Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, to examine references previously noted, and such books as related to my subject. I have added also a number of works to my own library, which I could not otherwise examine. Never having visited the extensive University Library at Cambridge, I took the liberty to apply to the lamented Greenleaf, before his death, to examine and copy for me from several authors that I could not find elsewhere. With a courtesy and kindness, equalled only by his ability and accuracy as a lawyer and a scholar, he cheerfully complied with my request. The MSS. sent me are in his own handwriting, and I prize them as relics of a great and good man.

From the causes before stated, I have been forced to rely on the accuracy of others for some of the references made. In almost every case I have noticed, at the time, the person on whose authority I cite.

My book has no political, no sectional purpose. I doubt not I am biassed by my birth and education in a slaveholding State. As far as possible, I have diligently sought for Truth, and have written nothing which I did not recognize as bearing her image. So believing, I neither court nor fear criticism; remembering that "veritas seapius agitata, magis splendescit lucem."

ATHENS, GEORGIA, August, 1858.