five
o'clock
Day after day the consul would call upon him and quiet his fears , reassuring him that he was safe and should not be sold as a slave . At length , on the seventeenth day of May , after nearly two months ' imprisonment , the glad news was received that Manuel Pereira was not to be sold , according to the statutes , but to be released upon payment of all costs , & c. & c. , and immediately sent beyond the limits of the State . We leave it to the reader 's fancy , to picture the scene of joy on the reception of the news in the `` stewards ' cell . '' The consul lost no time in arranging his affairs for him , and at five o'clock on the afternoon of the 17th of May , 1852 , Manuel Pereira , a poor , shipwrecked mariner , who , by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence , was cast upon the shores of South Carolina , and imprisoned because hospitality to him was `` contrary to law , '' was led forth , pale and emaciated , by two constables , thrust into a closely covered vehicle , and driven at full speed to the steamboat then awaiting to depart for New York . This is but a faint glimpse , of the suffering to which colored stewards are subjected in the Charleston jail . There were no less than sixty-three cases of colored seamen imprisoned on this charge of `` contrary to law , '' during the calendar year ending on the twelfth of September , 1852 . And now that abuses had become so glaring , a few gentlemen made a representation of the wretched prison regimen to his Excellency , Governor Means , who , as if just awoke from a dream that had lasted a generation , addressed a letter to the Attorney-General , dated on the seventh of September , 1852 , requesting a statement in regard to the jail-how many prisoners there were confined on the twelfth day of September , under sentence and awaiting trial , the nature of offences , who committed by , and how long they had awaited trial ; what the cost of the jail was , how much was paid by prisoners , and how much by the State , & c. & c .