The following are mostly abridged selections from the statutes of the
slave States and of the United States. They give but a faint view of
the cruel oppression to which the slaves are subject, but a strong
one enough, it is thought, to fill every honest heart with a deep
abhorrence of the atrocious system. Most of the important provisions
here cited, though placed under the name of only one State, prevail
in nearly all the States, with slight variations in language, and
some diversity in the penalties. The extracts have been made in part
from Stroud's Sketch of the Slave Laws, but chiefly from authorized
editions of the statute books referred to, found in the Philadelphia
Law Library. As the compiler has not had access to many of the later
enactments of the several States, nearly all he has cited are acts of
an earlier date than that of the present anti-slavery movement, so that
their severity cannot be ascribed to its influence.
The cardinal principle of slavery, that the slave is not to be ranked
among _sentient beings_, but among things—is an article of property, a
chattel personal—obtains as undoubted law in all the slave States.
The dominion of the master is as unlimited as is that which is
tolerated by the laws of any civilized country in relation to brute
animals—to _quadrupeds_; to use the words of the civil law.
Slaves cannot even contract matrimony.
* * * * *
LOUISIANA.—A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to
whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his
industry and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire
anything, but what must belong to his master.
Slaves are incapable of inheriting or transmitting property.
Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real estate; shall be as
such subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by law,
and they shall be seized and sold as real estate.
No owner of slaves shall hire his slaves to themselves, under a penalty
of twenty-five dollars for each offence.
No slave can possess anything in his own right, or dispose of the
produce of his own industry, without the consent of his master.
No slave can be party in a civil suit, or witness in a civil or
criminal matter, against any white person.
A slave's subordination to his master is susceptible of no restriction
(except in what incites to crime), and he owes to him and all his
family, respect without bounds, and absolute obedience.
Every slave found on horseback, without a written permission from his
master, shall receive twenty-five lashes.
Any freeholder may seize and correct any slave found absent from his
usual place of work or residence, without some white person, and if
the slave resist or try to escape, he may use arms, and if the slave
_assault_ and strike him, he may kill the slave.
It is lawful to fire upon runaway negroes who are armed, and upon those
who, when pursued, refuse to surrender.
No slave may buy, sell, or exchange any kind of goods, or hold any
boat, or bring up for his own use, any horses or cattle, under a
penalty of forfeiting the whole.
Slaves or free colored persons are punished with _death_ for wilfully
burning or destroying any stack of produce or any building.
The punishment of a slave for striking a white person, shall be for
the first and second offences at the discretion of the court, but not
extending to life or limb, and for the third offence, _death_; but for
grievously wounding or mutilating a white person, _death_ for the first
offence; provided, if the blow or wound is given in defence of the
person or _property of his master_, or the person having charge of him,
he is entirely justified.
A slave for wilfully striking his master or mistress, or the child of
either, or his white overseer, so as to cause a bruise or shedding of
blood, _shall be punished with death_.
Any person cutting or breaking any iron chain or collar used to prevent
the escape of slaves, shall be fined not less than two hundred dollars,
nor more than one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned not more than two
years, nor less than six months.
All slaves sentenced to death or perpetual imprisonment, in virtue of
existing laws, shall be paid for out of the public treasury, provided
the sum paid shall not exceed three hundred dollars for each slave.
The State Treasurer shall pay the owners the value of all slaves whose
punishment has been commuted from that of death to that of imprisonment
for life.
If any slave shall _happen_ to be slain for refusing to surrender him
or herself, contrary to law, or in unlawfully resisting any officer,
or _other person_, who shall apprehend, or endeavor to apprehend, such
slave or slaves, &c., such officer or _other person so killing such
slave as aforesaid_, making resistance, shall be, and he is by this
act, _indemnified_, from any prosecution for such killing aforesaid, &c.
And by the negro act of 1740, of South Carolina, it is declared:
If any slave who shall be out of the house or plantation where such
slave shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white
person in company with such slave, shall _refuse to submit_ to undergo
the examination of _any white_ person, it shall be lawful for such
white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave;
and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such
slave may be _lawfully killed_!!
Transcriber’s Notes:
- Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
- Blank pages have been removed.
- Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.