Slaves and Free Negroes

Title 30. Slaves and Free Negroes. . . . 

Chapter CIII. General provisions as to slaves. . . . 

§ 1. None shall be slaves in this state except those who are so when this chapter takes effect, such free negroes as may be sold as slaves pursuant to law, such slaves as may be lawfully brought into this state, and the future descendants of female slaves.

§ 2. Slaves born within the limits of the United States may be brought into this state and held therein, if resident in those limits at the time of removal, and not theretofore convicted of and transported for crime.

§ 3. Every person who has one-fourth part or more of negro blood shall be deemed a mulatto, and the word "negro" in any other section of this, or in any future statute, shall be construed  to mean mulatto as well as negro.

§ 4. No free negro shall be capable of acquiring (except by descent) any slave other than the husband, wife, parent or descendant of such free negro.

§ 5. Slaves shall be deemed personal estate.

§ 6. Any person who shall permit an insane, aged or infirm slave owned by him or under his control, to go at large without adequate provision for his support, shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, and the overseers of the poor of the county or corporation, in which such slave may be found, shall provide for his maintenance, and may charge such person quarterly or annually with a sufficient sum therefor, and recover it from time to time, by motion in the court of such county or corporation. If any person shall, by sale, gift or otherwise, dispose of any insane, aged or infirm slave, which is, or is likely to become, chargeable, such person, or the donor or vendor, (at the election of the said overseers,) may be proceeded against as the owner of the slave, under this section.

§ 7. If any tenant for life of a slave, shall remove him or permit his removal out of the state, without the consent of those in reversion or remainder, he shall forfeit such life estate and the full value of such slave to the person in reversion or remainder. And should such tenant for life be one of several remaindermen or reversioners in such slave, the others may recover, either jointly or severally, their shares in remainder or reversion in such slave from any person claiming from or under such tenant for life.

§ 8. Every tenant, for his own or another's life, of a slave, or the guardian or husband of such tenant, shall, within one year after becoming possessed of such slave, or after the birth of any increase thereof, furnish the clerk of the county or corporation, in which such tenant resides, a statement in writing of the name, sex and age of such slave or increase, as the case may be, and the clerk shall forthwith register the same in a separate book, kept for that purpose. Any tenant so entitled, or the guardian or husband of such tenant, failing to comply with this section, shall forfeit to the person, entitled in reversion or remainder, fifty dollars for every slave as to which such failure shall have occurred.

§ 9. Any person may emancipate any of his slaves by last will in writing, or by deed, recorded in the court of his county or corporation.

§ 10. The increase of any female so emancipated by deed or will hereafter made, born between the death of the testator, or the record of the deed, and the time when her right to the enjoyment of her freedom arrives, shall also be free at that time, unless the deed or will otherwise provides.

§ 11. All slaves emancipated as aforesaid, shall be liable for any debt contracted, by the person emancipating them, before such emancipation is made.

§ 12. If any person emancipate a slave, who is likely to become chargeable to the county or corporation, without making adequate provision for his support, and such slave become so chargeable, the overseers of the poor shall provide for his maintenance, and charge such person, or his estate, quarterly or annually, with a sufficient sum therefor, and may recover it, from time to time, by motion, in the court of such county or corporation.

Chapter CIV. Of dealing with slaves and suffering them to go at large. . . .

§ 1. If any person sell wine, ardent spirits, or any mixture thereof, or any other intoxicating liquor, to a slave without the written consent of his master, he shall forfeit to the master four times the value of the thing sold, and also pay a fine of twenty dollars.

§ 2. If any person buy or receive from, or sell to, a slave, without his master's consent, any other article or commodity whatever, he shall forfeit to the master four times the value of such article or commodity and also pay a fine not exceeding twenty dollars.

§ 3. If the offender against either of the two preceding sections be a licensed ordinary keeper, merchant, hawker or pedlar, in addition to the other penalties prescribed by the said sections, his license shall be revoked.

§ 4. Any offender against the first or second section of this chapter shall moreover give security for his good behaviour for a year; and, on failure, shall be committed to jail till the security be given or till the county or corporation court, (where the conviction was before a justice,) or the court where the conviction was, shall for good cause shewn discharge him.

§ 5. If any master or other person give written permission to a slave to obtain, or furnish him with, any intoxicating liquor, with the intent that he shall sell, barter or trade the same or any part thereof, such master or other person shall forfeit twenty dollars, and give security for his good behaviour for one year.

§ 6. Any person permitting a slave under his control to go at large, trade as a free man, or hire himself out for the benefit of any person whatever, shall forfeit not less than ten nor more than thirty dollars. And if the person so permitting hold the slave as personal representative, guardian, curator or committee, he shall pay the fine out of his own estate, and not out of that held by him as such fiduciary.

§ 7. Any person may, and officers shall, with or without warrant, arrest any slave as to whom there is a violation of the preceding section, and carry him before a justice, who, on due proof of the fact, shall commit him to jail, unless his master or some other person give recognizance with good security for his forthcoming to abide the result of the prosecution. The justice shall notify the proceeding to the commonwealth's attorney of the county or corporation court, at or before the next term thereof, when, if it appear to the court that the master has violated the preceding section, the court may impose on him a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than thirty dollars, or direct an information to be filed against him. If he be adjudged guilty by the court, or be convicted by a jury, and fail to pay forthwith the fine, jail fees and all other costs, the said slave shall be sold therefor in the same manner as a slave taken under execution. Execution may issue as in other cases, if the slave be not forthcoming, or be sold and prove insufficient to pay the fine and costs.

§ 8. Any person harbouring or employing a slave without the consent of his master, shall forfeit to the master not less than one, nor more than five dollars for every day of such harbouring or employment.

Chapter CV. Of Runaway Slaves. . . .

Runaways apprehended.

§ 1. Every slave arrested as a runaway, shall be taken before a justice, and if there be reasonable cause to suspect that such slave is a runaway, the justice shall give a certificate thereof stating therein, as near as may be, if the same be known, the distance of the place of arrest from that from which the slave may be supposed to have fled, and the sum of money demandable therefor by the person making the arrest, including mileage. If the arrest be made without the state, the slave shall be taken before a justice of the county or corporation into which he may be first brought, and such justice shall give the proper certificate.

§ 2. The justice giving the certificate, by his precept endorsed thereon, shall command the person, applying for the same, forthwith to deliver the slave for safe keeping, (together with the said certificate,) to the jailor of his county or corporation, who shall give his receipt therefor, or, if the owner of the slave or his agent be known, the precept may command the delivery to be made to such owner or agent, upon the payment of the sum of money demandable for the arrest and mileage, and, upon default of such payment, to the jailor of the county or corporation in which such default is made.

§ 3. Any person confined in jail, on suspicion of being a runaway slave, may be discharged by the county or corporation court, in which case, or if he die in jail, the prison fees and other lawful charges shall be chargeable upon such person, (if he be a free negro,) upon the owner (if he be a slave,) upon the person making the arrest, or upon the county or corporation, as the court may deem proper.

§ 4. Every person who may arrest a runaway slave, and deliver him to the owner, or his agent, or to some jailor at his jail, with the certificate of a justice, in the manner herein provided, shall be entitled to demand of such owner a reward therefor that is to say, if such slave be arrested in this state, and within fifty miles of his residence, a reward of five dollars, or if more than fifty miles, ten dollars; if in any other slaveholding state, and within fifty miles of his residence, ten dollars, or if more than fifty miles, twenty dollars; if in any non-slaveholding state, and within fifty miles of his residence, fifty dollars, or if more than fifty miles, one hundred dollars; if on board a vessel departing or about to depart from any point in this state, a reward of forty dollars. And in every case, the person making the arrest and delivery shall be allowed mileage, at the rate of ten cents a mile, for necessary travel from the place of arrest. The hirer of a slave shall not be liable for the payment of any reward allowed by this section, unless such running away was caused by the bad treatment of the hirer, or otherwise by his act or procurement, and in that event the hirer shall pay to the owner the whole of such reward and expense of apprehending such slave.

§ 5. If any private reward be offered for the arrest of a runaway slave, the person making the arrest may, at his option, demand such reward, or the reward and mileage allowed by law.

§ 6. The reward and mileage allowed or offered, as aforesaid, shall be a lien on the slave from the time of his apprehension till the same be paid, or till he be delivered to the owner, or discharged by the court, and on the proceeds of sale, if sold, as hereinafter provided.

Runaway to be delivered to owner.

§ 7. The court of the county or corporation in which a runaway slave may be confined, or any justice thereof, may order such slave to be delivered to the owner or his agent, upon payment to the jailor of all lawful charges incident upon his arrest.

§ 8. The jailor having so delivered such slave, he and his sureties shall be liable to the person making the arrest, for his reward and mileage. The liability shall be only for the reward and mileage prescribed by law, if the jailor had no notice that a larger reward was offered, and the owner or his agent, before the delivery, made oath that no larger reward had been offered by the owner, or any person authorized by him.

§ 9. When a runaway slave is committed to jail, the jailor shall forthwith set up an advertisement, describing the slave and his apparel, at the door of the courthouse of his county or corporation. If no owner claim him within one month, the jailor shall cause a like advertisement to be published for six weeks in some newspaper in the city of Richmond, and also (where the jail is not in that city,) in some newspaper circulating near the jail. He shall also endeavour to ascertain the owner's name and residence, and, upon obtaining any information thereof, shall send the supposed owner by mail, postpaid, an unsealed letter, directed to the post office supposed to be nearest to his residence, describing the runaway, and stating any other facts deemed material. If the jailor omit any of the duties prescribed by this section, his fees for receiving and keeping the slave shall be reduced to such extent as the court of his county or corporation may think proper.

§ 10. If such runaway be not claimed by the owner within four months after the advertisement aforesaid is ended, the county or corporation court, upon the jailor's report, and proof of such advertisement, shall order its officer to sell the slave. The sale shall be made at the same time and place, and after such notice at the courthouse door, as in the case of slaves levied on.

§ 11. The said officer, after deducting from the proceeds a commission of five per centum, the jailor's lawful fees, and other charges, and the apprehender's dues (all of which are to be paid by the said officer,) shall pay the residue into the public treasury, at the same time, and under the same penalties for failure as in the case of taxes.

§ 12. If such officer fail to make a report of the sale as prescribed by the forty-ninth chapter, he shall forfeit one hundred dollars to the commonwealth, unless before a proceeding therefor the owner of the slave appear and prove his ownership, in which case the forfeiture shall be to such owner.

§ 13. When a runaway is so ordered to be sold, the clerk of the court shall, as soon as may be, transmit to the first auditor a copy of the order, and also of the officer's report of the sale; for each of which copies the clerk shall have a fee of fifty cents, to be paid from the proceeds of sale. A clerk failing to transmit a copy of the order or report, within twenty days after the former is made or the latter is returned, shall forfeit fifty dollars.

§ 14. The court by whose order the sale was made, may at any time thereafter, order the nett proceeds thereof to be paid to the owner by the officer making the sale, if the money be still in his hands, or out of the treasury, if it be therein.

§ 15. When an imprisoned runaway is not sufficiently clothed, the jailor shall furnish him with proper negro clothing, the cost of which shall be adjusted by the county or corporation court, or two justices.

§ 16. If such slave die in jail, the jailor's fees and other lawful charges shall be paid by the owner; if he be not known or be unable to pay, then out of the treasury, on being allowed and certified by the court.

Chapter CVI. Of suits for freedom. . . .

§ 1. Any person conceiving himself unlawfully detained as a slave, may petition the circuit court, or court of the county or corporation in which he may be detained, for leave to sue for his freedom, or he may complain thereof to a justice.

§ 2. If the complaint be made to a justice, he shall, by precept in writing, give the complainant in charge to the sheriff or other officer, to be produced before the circuit court, or court of the county or corporation, (as the complainant may elect,) at the next term thereof; and in the mean time to be safely kept, at the expense of the person claiming to be the owner; and shall cause such person to be notified thereof.

§ 3. If the person claiming to be the owner, or some one for him, will enter into bond, approved by the officer having the complainant in charge, in a penalty equal to double the value of the complainant, supposing him to be a slave, conditioned to have him forthcoming before the said court at the next term thereof, such officer shall deliver to him the complainant.

§ 4. The court to which such petition may be presented shall assign the petitioner counsel, who, without reward, shall aid him in the prosecution of his suit; and until the person claiming to be the owner, or some one for him, will enter into bond, before the court or its clerk, in such penalty as the court shall direct, conditioned to have the petitioner forthcoming, to abide the judgment of the court, and in the meantime to allow him reasonable opportunity to prepare for trial, shall deliver him in charge to the proper officer for safe keeping, at the expense of the person so claiming to be owner: but the petitioner may in the mean time be hired out, if the court so order, and the hire shall be disposed of as the court shall direct. The petitioner shall have, free of cost, all needful process, services of officers and attendance of witnesses.

§ 5. It shall be the duty of the counsel to file with the clerk a statement in writing of the material facts of the case, with his opinion thereon; and unless it appear manifest therefrom that the suit ought not to be prosecuted, the court shall cause the person claiming to be the owner to be summoned to answer the petition.

§ 6. The case may be tried, without regard to its place on the docket, at the term of the court to which the summons shall be returned executed; and a jury, free from exception, without the formality of pleading, shall be empanneled to try whether the petitioner be free or not.

§ 7. If the verdict be for the petitioner, the jury may find damages for his detention pending the suit; and the court shall adjudge the petitioner to be free and award to him the damages and costs.

§ 8. When slaves are emancipated by will, the nett proceeds of the aggregate of their hires and profits with which the personal representative of the testator is chargeable, or so much thereof as may not be required for the payment of debts, shall, unless inconsistent with the manifest intention of the testator, belong to the persons so emancipated and be apportioned among them as a court of equity having cognizance of the case may deem just.

§ 9. If any person be found aiding or maintaining a slave in the prosecution of a suit upon such petition, who shall fail to establish his claim to freedom, every such person shall be liable to the owner in an action on the case for damages.

Chapter CVII. Of free negroes. . . .

§1. No negro, emancipated since the first day of May eighteen hundred and six, or hereafter, or claiming his right to freedom under a negro so emancipated, shall, after being twenty-one years of age, remain in this state more than one year without lawful permission.

§ 2. Any such negro may be permitted by the court of any county or corporation to remain in this state, and reside in such county or corporation only, but the order granting the permission shall be void, unless it shew that all the acting justices were summoned, and a majority of them present and voting on the question of permitting said negro to remain in the state, that notice of the application for such permission was posted at the courthouse door for at least two months immediately preceding, that the attorney for the commonwealth, or in his absence some other attorney appointed by the court for the purpose, represented the state as counsel in the case, and that the applicant produced satisfactory proof of his being of good character, sober, peaceable, orderly and industrious. Such permission shall not be granted to any person who, having removed from this state, shall have returned into it. Nor shall any such permission, granted to a female negro, be deemed a permission to the issue of such female, whether born before or after it was granted.

§ 3. The court granting such permission may, for any cause which seems to it sufficient, revoke the same, first summoning the negro to whom it was granted to appear and shew cause, if any he can, against the revocation; and such negro shall not remain in the state more than one year thereafter.
 
§ 4. If any negro, so permitted to remain, be sentenced for felony by any court of this state or the United States, such permission shall, by the sentence aforesaid, and at the termination of his imprisonment under such sentence, if he be imprisoned within this state, be ipso facto revoked.

§ 5. Every commissioner of the revenue, annually, with his book of personal property, shall return also a complete list of all free negroes in his district, who are over twelve years of age, specifying their names, sexes, ages (as nearly as he can,) and trades or occupations; of which list the clerk shall fix up a copy at the courthouse door, and preserve the original in his office. For a failure in such duty, the commissioner shall forfeit thirty dollars and the clerk fifteen dollars. The commissioner shall also give information to the grand jury of any free negro in such district remaining in this state against law; and in case of failure to give such information, he shall be fined three dollars for every such negro so remaining of whose residence he had knowledge.

§ 6. Every free negro shall, every five years, be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the clerk of the court of the county or corporation where such free negro resides; which register shall specify his name, age, colour and stature, with any apparent mark or scar on his facc, head or hands, by what instrument he was emancipated, and when and where it was recorded; or that he was born free, and in what county or place. In the case of a negro emancipated since the first day of May eighteen hundred and six, or any descendant of a female negro so emancipated, born after such emancipation, the register shall state whether or no permission has been granted him to reside in this state, and if granted, when and by what court. No such register shall be made until ordered by the court. For making and entering such register and order, the clerk shall have a fee of twenty-five cents.

§ 7. The clerk shall deliver to the free negro an attested copy of his register, with the seal of the court annexed; receiving therefor a fee of twenty-five cents, and no tax for annexing the seal.

§ 8. Before the register of a free negro is renewed, he shall deliver up the copy which he had of his former register, unless the court be satisfied that it has been casually lost or destroyed; nor shall any copy of a register more than five years old avail for any of the purposes of this chapter.

§ 9. Where a free negro has received a copy of his register, no other copy shall be delivered him (on pain of twenty dollars fine, to be paid by the clerk,) until he shall have delivered up the former copy to be destroyed; unless by special order of the court, upon being satisfied that the former one has been accidentally lost or destroyed.

§ 10. Any free negro above twelve years of age, residing in this state, not having such attested copy, (of a register of him, made as before directed,) may be committed to jail by a justice, until such copy be produced, or till the court be satisfied that it has been casually lost or destroyed, or that such negro, though really free, has not been registered within five years preceding his arrest; in either of which cases he shall be discharged on paying the jail fees. But if he be so arrested a second time, and be found to have suffered the copy of his register to be lost or destroyed, or not to have had his registry made within five years, he shall be punished with stripes.

§ 11. If such free negro be unable to pay the jail fees, he shall, by order of the court, be hired out at not less than ten cents a day, till they be discharged; but the jailor shall have no fees in such case, unless, immediately upon such free negro's commitment, he shall have informed the commonwealth's attorney of the fact, in writing, and also have informed the court thereof, at its then or next sitting. The court's order shall specify the amount of jail fees then due.

§ 12. Such hiring shall be for cash, and (unless the free negro consent to or prefer its being private,) shall be public, to the highest bidder, on court day, in front of the courthouse, and after at least ten days public advertisement; and in no case for a longer time than will suffice at the agreed rate to pay the jail fees; and every hiring for a longer time shall be void.

§ 13. The sheriff shall return to the clerk's office of the court, within ten days after the hiring, a statement specifying the hirer's name and place of abode, the amount of jail fees, the rate of hire per day, and the day on which the hiring is to expire, and, for failing to do so, shall be fined fifty dollars.

§ 14. Any person employing any free negro who has not such attested copy of his register, shall forfeit five dollars to any person who will warrant therefor.

§ 15. Any free negro failing to pay his taxes or levies for any year or years, and not having visible property out of which they may be made by distress, shall, by order of the county or corporation court, be hired out by its officer for such time as will suffice, at not less than ten cents a day, to raise the said taxes and levies, with a commission to the officer of five per cent. If hired out for a longer time, the hiring as to such excess shall be void, and the free negro may recover of the officer one dollar for every day thereof. If the hirer carry such free negro out of the county or corporation, without his own consent, declared before a justice, and by him certified in writing, the hirer shall forfeit all title to the services of such free negro, and moreover be fined not less than twenty nor more than two hundred dollars.

§ 16. No such hiring of a free negro, in order to pay his taxes or levies, shall be for any which have been in arrear more than five years.

§ 17. The court of any county or corporation, upon satisfactory proof, by a white person, of the fact, may grant to any free person of mixed blood, resident therein, a certificate that he is not a negro; which certificate shall protect such person against the penalties and disabilities to which free negroes are subject as such.

§ 18. Free negroes desiring to remove into any county or corporation, shall hereafter apply to the court thereof to be registered. Said courts shall make an order granting or refusing the application, as in their discretion shall seem proper.

§ 19. All free negroes going into any county or corporation, and residing or habitually remaining therein more than two months, without making such application, or found therein at any time after ten days shall have elapsed since said application was made and refused, shall be considered and treated as free negroes going at large without a register.