The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave by William Wells Brown

of such runaway and his clothing.—The sheriff is to “cause a copy of such notice to be sent to the clerk or reader of each church or chapel within his county, who are hereby required to make publication thereof by setting up the same in some open and convenient place, near the said church or chapel, on every Lord’s day, during the space of two months from the date thereof.” 1741, c. 24, §45.—“Which proclamation shall be published on a Sabbath day at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such,at the place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by the parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service; and if any slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued, stay out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by such way or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same.” It is well known that slavery makes labor disreputable in the slave states. Laboring men of the north, hear how contemptibly slaveholders speak of you. Mr. Robert Wickliffe of Kentucky, in a speech published in the Louisville Advertiser, in opposition to those who were averse to the importation of slaves from the states, thus discourseth: “Gentlemen wanted to drive out the black population that they may obtain white negroes in their place. White negroes have this advantage over black negroes, they can be converted