VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.
AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.
_It is hereby enacted, &c.:_
Sec. 1. No person within this State shall be considered as property,
or subject, as such, to sale, purchase, or delivery; nor shall any
person, within the limits of this State, at this time, be deprived
of liberty or property without due process of law.
Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of
this Act shall, in all cases, be defined to mean the usual process
and forms in force by the laws of this State, and issued by the
courts thereof; and under such process, such person shall be
entitled to a trial by jury.
Sec. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of
liberty, arrested, or detained, on the ground that such person owes
service or labor to another person, not an inhabitant of this State,
either party may claim a trial by jury; and, in such case,
challenges shall be allowed to the defendant agreeably to sections
four and five of chapter one hundred and eleven of the compiled
statutes.
Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any
other person of his or her liberty, contrary to the preceding
sections of this Act, shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay
a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars nor less than five hundred
dollars, or be punished by imprisonment in the State Prison for a
term not exceeding ten years: _Provided_, that nothing in said
preceding sections shall apply to, or affect the right to arrest or
imprison under existing laws for contempt of court.
Sec. 5. Neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such
African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or
complexion, shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any
person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such
person of the rights and privileges thereof.
Sec. 6. Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall
come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the
consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be
brought, or be, involuntarily or in any way in this State, shall be
free.
Sec. 7. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this
State, in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in
the sixth section of this act, or any free person, in any form, or
for any time, however short, under pretence that such person is or
has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the
State Prison for a term not less than one year, nor more than
fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars.
Sec. 8. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions
of this Act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect from its passage.
Approved November 25, 1858.