A BILL PROVIDING ADDITIONAL PROTECTION FOR THE SLAVE PROPERTY OF
CITIZENS OF THIS COMMONWEALTH.
(1.) Be it enacted, by the General Assembly, that it shall not
be lawful for any vessel, of any size or description, whatever,
owned in whole, or in part, by any citizen or resident of
another State, and about to sail or steam for any port or place
in this State, for any port or place north of and beyond the
capes of Virginia, to depart from the waters of this
commonwealth, until said vessel has undergone the inspection
hereinafter provided for in this act, and received a certificate
to that effect. If any such vessel shall depart from the State
without such certificate of inspection, the captain or owner
thereof, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars,
to be recovered by any person who will sue for the same, in any
court of record in this State, in the name of the Governor of
the Commonwealth. Pending said suit, the vessel of said captain
or owner shall not leave the State until bond be given by the
captain or owner, or other person for him, payable to the
Governor, with two or three sureties satisfactory to the court,
in the penalty of one thousand dollars, for the payment of the
forfeit or fine, together with the cost and expenses incurred in
enforcing the same; and in default of such bond, the vessel
shall be held liable. Provided that nothing contained in this
section, shall apply to vessels belonging to the United States
Government, or vessels, American or foreign, bound direct to any
foreign country other than the British American Provinces.
(2.) The pilots licensed under the laws of Virginia, and while
attached to a vessel regularly employed as a pilot boat, are
hereby constituted inspectors to execute this act, so far as the
same may be applicable to the Chesapeake Bay, and the waters
tributary thereto, within the jurisdiction of this State,
together with such other inspectors as may be appointed by
virtue of this act.
(3.) The branch or license issued to a pilot according to the
provisions of the 92d chapter of Code, shall be sufficient
evidence that he is authorized and empowered to act as inspector
as aforesaid.
(4.) It shall be the duty of the inspector, or other person
authorized to act under this law, to examine and search all
vessels hereinbefore described, to see that no slave or person
held to service or labor in this State, or person charged with
the commission of any crime within the State, shall be concealed
on board said vessel. Such inspection shall be made within
twelve hours of the time of departure of such vessel from the
waters of Virginia, and may be made in any bay, river, creek, or
other water-course of the State, provided, however, that
steamers plying as regular packets, between ports in Virginia
and those north of, and outside of the capes of Virginia, shall
be inspected at the port of departure nearest Old Point Comfort.
(5.) A vessel so inspected and getting under way, with intent to
leave the waters of the State, if she returns to an anchorage
above Back River Point, or within Old Point Comfort, shall be
again inspected and charged as if an original case. If such
vessel be driven back by stress of weather to seek a harbor, she
shall be exempt from payment of a second fee, unless she holds
intercourse with the shore.
(6.) If, after searching the vessel, the inspector see no just
cause to detain her, he shall give to the captain a certificate
to that effect. If, however, upon such inspection, or in any
other manner, any slave or person held to service or labor, or
any person charged with any crime, be found on board of any
vessel whatever, for the purpose aforesaid, or said vessel be
detected in the act of leaving this commonwealth with any such
slave or person on board, or otherwise violating the provisions
of this act, he shall attach said vessel, and arrest all persons
on board, to be delivered up to the sergeant or sheriff of the
nearest port in this commonwealth, to be dealt with according to
law.
(7.) If any inspector or other officer be opposed, or shall have
reason to suspect that he will be opposed or obstructed in the
discharge of any duty required of him under this act, he shall
have power to summon and command the force of any county or
corporation to aid him in the discharge of such duty, and every
person who shall resist, obstruct, or refuse to aid any
inspector or other officer in the discharge of such duty, shall
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined and imprisoned as in other cases of misdemeanor.
(8.) For every inspection of a vessel under this law, the
inspector, or other officer shall be entitled to demand and
receive the sum of five dollars; for the payment of which such
vessel shall be liable, and the inspector or other officer may
seize and hold her until the same is paid, together with all
charges incurred in taking care of the vessel, as well as in
enforcing the payment of the same. Provided, that steam packets
trading regularly between the waters of Virginia and ports north
of and beyond the capes of Virginia, shall pay not more than
five dollars for each inspection under the provisions of this
act; provided, however, that for every inspection of a vessel
engaged in the coal trade, the inspector shall not receive a
greater sum than two dollars.
(9.) Any inspector or other person apprehending a slave in the
act of escaping from the state, on board a vessel trading to or
belonging to a non-slave-holding state, or who shall give
information that will lead to the recovery of any slave, as
aforesaid, shall be entitled to a reward of One Hundred Dollars,
to be paid by the owner of such slave, or by the fiduciary
having charge of the estate to which such slave belongs; and if
the vessel be forfeited under the provisions of this act, he
shall be entitled to one-half of the proceeds arising from the
sale of the vessel; and if the same amounts to one hundred
dollars, he shall not receive from the owner the above reward of
one hundred dollars.
(10.) An inspector permitting a slave to escape for the want of
proper exertion, or by neglect in the discharge of his duty,
shall be fined One Hundred Dollars; or if for like causes he
permit a vessel, which the law requires him to inspect, to leave
the state without inspection, he shall be fined not less than
twenty, nor more than fifty dollars, to be recovered by warrant
by any person who will proceed against him.
(11.) No pilot acting under the authority of the laws of the
state, shall pilot out of the jurisdiction of this state any
such vessel as is described in this act, which has not obtained
and exhibited to him the certificate of inspection hereby
required; and if any pilot shall so offend, he shall forfeit and
pay not less than twenty, or more than fifty dollars, to be
recovered in the mode prescribed in the next preceding section
of this act.
(12.) The courts of the several counties or corporations
situated on the Chesapeake Bay, or its tributaries, by an order
entered on record, may appoint one or more inspectors, at such
place or places within their respective districts as they may
deem necessary, to prevent the escape or for the recapture of
slaves attempting to escape beyond the limits of the state, and
to search or otherwise examine all vessels trading to such
counties or corporations. The expenses in such cases to be
provided for by a levy on negroes now taxed by law; but no
inspection by county or corporation officers thus appointed,
shall supersede the inspection of such vessels by pilots and
other inspectors, as specially provided for in this act.
(13.) It shall be lawful for the county court of any county,
upon the application of five or more slave-holders, residents of
the counties where the application is made, by an order of
record, to designate one or more police stations in their
respective counties, and a captain and three or more other
persons as a police patrol on each station, for the recapture of
fugitive slaves; which patrol shall be in service at such times,
and such stations as the court shall direct by their order
aforesaid; and the said court shall allow a reasonable
compensation, to be paid to the members of such patrol; and for
that purpose, the said court may from time to time direct a levy
on negroes now taxed by law, at such rate per capita as the
court may think sufficient, to be collected and accounted for by
the sheriff as other county levies, and to be called, "The
fugitive slave tax." The owner of each fugitive slave in the act
of escaping beyond the limits of the commonwealth, to a
non-slave-holding state, and captured by the patrol aforesaid,
shall pay for each slave over fifteen, and under forty-five
years old, a reward of One Hundred dollars; for each slave over
five, and under fifteen years old, the sum of sixty dollars; and
for all others, the sum of forty dollars. Which reward shall be
divided equally among the members of the patrol retaking the
slave and actually on duty at the time; and to secure the
payment of said reward, the said patrol may retain possession
and use of the slave until the reward is paid or secured to
them.
(14.) The executive of this State may appoint one or more
inspectors for the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, if he shall
deem it expedient, for the due execution of this act. The
inspectors so appointed to perform the same duties, and to be
invested with the same powers in their respective districts, and
receive the same fees, as pilots acting as inspectors in other
parts of the State. A vessel subject to inspection under this
law, departing from any of the above-named counties or rivers on
her voyage to sea, shall be exempted from the payment of a fee
for a second inspection by another officer, if provided with a
certificate from the proper inspecting officer of that district;
but if, after proceeding on her voyage, she returns to the port
or place of departure, or enters any other port, river, or
roadstead in the State, the said vessel shall be again
inspected, and pay a fee of five dollars, as if she had
undergone no previous examination and received no previous
certificate.
If driven by stress of weather to seek a harbor, and she has no
intercourse with the shore, then, and in that case, no second
fee shall be paid by said vessel.
(15.) For the better execution of the provisions of this act, in
regard to the inspection, of vessels, the executive is hereby
authorized and directed to appoint a chief inspector, to reside
at Norfolk, whose duty it shall be, to direct and superintend
the police, agents, or inspectors above referred to. He shall
keep a record of all vessels engaged in the piloting business,
together with a list of such persons as may be employed as
pilots and inspectors under this law. The owner or owners of
each boat shall make a monthly report to him, of all vessels
inspected by persons attached to said pilot boats, the names of
such vessels, the owner or owners thereof, and the places where
owned or licensed, and where trading to or from, and the
business in which they are engaged, together with a list of
their crews. Any inspector failing to make his report to the
chief inspector, shall pay a fine of twenty dollars for each
such failure, which fine shall be recovered by warrant, before a
justice of the county or corporation. The chief inspector may
direct the time and station for the cruise of each pilot boat,
and perform such other duty as the Governor may designate, not
inconsistent with the other provisions of this act. He shall
make a quarterly return to the executive of all the transactions
of his department, reporting to him any failure or refusal on
the part of inspectors to discharge the duty assigned to them,
and the Governor, for sufficient cause, may suspend or remove
from office any delinquent inspector. The chief inspector shall
receive as his compensation, ten per cent, on all the fees and
fines received by the inspectors acting under his authority, and
may be removed at the pleasure of the executive.
(16.) All fees and forfeitures imposed by this act, and not
otherwise specially provided for, shall go one half to the
informer, and the other be paid into the treasury of the State,
to constitute a fund, to be called the "fugitive slave fund,"
and to be used for the payment of rewards awarded by the
Governor, for the apprehension of runaway slaves, and to pay
other expenses incident to the execution of this law, together
with such other purposes as may hereafter be determined on by
the General Assembly.
(17.) This act shall be in force from its passage.
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