Fugitive Slaves Part 22

=1740.= _Statutes at Large, South Carolina, III. 568._

=73. North Carolina:--Entertainment of runaways, etc. [-- 3.]=

=1741.= XXVII. Any person harbouring a runaway shall be prosecuted and compelled to pay the sum of twenty-five pounds or serve the owner of the slave or his a.s.signs five years. If he actually carry away the slave, he shall be convicted of felony and suffer accordingly. XXVIII. Seven shillings and sixpence, Proclamation money, reward for taking up runaways. For every mile over ten, threepence. x.x.xIV. Runaways when taken up shall be whipped. x.x.xV. Constables must give a receipt for runaway. Any failure shall be fined twenty shillings, Proclamation money, to be paid the church warden. x.x.xVI. Sheriff who shall hold a runaway longer than the act directs shall forfeit five pounds. Sheriff who allows a runaway to escape is liable to action from the party grieved. x.x.xVIII. This article takes up the fees of the jailor, etc.--_Laws of North Carolina, 89._

=74. Virginia:--Ferriage of runaways.=

=1748, Oct.= An Act for the Settlement and Regulation of Ferries, and for the Despatch of Public Expresses. VI. All constables and their a.s.sistants charged with conducting any runaway servant shall be pa.s.sed ferry free. The ferriage shall then be paid by the owners of the runaways.--_Statutes at Large, Hening, VI. 22._

=75. South Carolina: Act additional to Act of 1740.=

=1751.= _Statutes at Large of South Carolina, III. 738._

=76. Rhode Island:--a.s.sistance of runaways.=

=1766-1798.= An Act relative to Slaves, and to their Manumission and support.--Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, that if any person shall conceal any negro or mulatto slave, or shall in any manner a.s.sist such slave in escaping from the lawful authority of his or her master, the person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of three hundred dollars, to be recovered by action of debt, one moiety thereof to and for the use of the State, and the other moiety thereof to and for the use of the person who shall sue for the same.--_Laws of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 607._

=77. North Carolina:--Slave stealing.=

=1779.= An Act to prevent the stealing of Slaves, or by Violence, Seduction, or any other Means, taking or conveying away any Slave or Slaves the Property of another, and for other Purposes therein mentioned. IV. And whereas many evil disposed Persons frequently entice or persuade Slaves (without any Intention to steal them) and Servants, to absent themselves from their Master or Mistress, and often times harbour and maintain runaway Servants and Slaves; _Be it therefore further enacted_ by the authority aforesaid, that any Person or Persons who shall hereafter entice or persuade any Servant or Slave to absent him or herself from his or her Master or Mistress, or who shall harbour or maintain any runaway Servant or Slave, shall for every such Offence forfeit or pay to the Master or Mistress of such Servant or Slave, the sum of one hundred Pounds current money, to be recovered by Action of Debt, in any Jurisdiction having Cognizance thereof; and be further liable to the said master or mistress in an action for Damages, where in no Essoign, Injunction, Protection, or Wager of Law shall be allowed or admitted, notwithstanding any Law, Usage, or Custom to the contrary.--_Laws of North Carolina, 371._

=78. Connecticut:--Escape of negroes and servants.=

=No date given.= An Act to prevent the Running away of Indian and Negro Servants. "Be it enacted by the Governour, Council, and Representatives, in General Court a.s.sembled, and by the Authority of the same, that whatsoever Negro or Indian Servant or Servants shall at any time after the publication hereof be found wandering out of the Town Bounds, or Place to which they belong, without a Ticket or Pa.s.s in writing under the Hand of some a.s.sistant or Justice of the Peace, or under the Hand of the Master or Owner of such Negro or Indian Servant or Servants, shall be deemed and accounted to be Run-aways; and every person Inhabiting in this Colony, finding or meeting with any such Negro or Indian Servant or Servants, not having a Ticket as aforesaid, is hereby impowered to seize and secure him or them, and bring him or them before the next authority, to be examined and returned to his or their Master or Owner, who shall satisfy the charge accruing thereby; and all Ferrymen within this Colony are hereby required not to suffer any Indian or Negro Servant, without Certificate as aforesaid, to pa.s.s over their respective Ferrys, by a.s.sisting of them therein directly or indirectly, on penalty of paying a fine of Twenty Shillings for every such Offence to the County Treasury, to be levied on their estates upon non-payment, by warrant from any one a.s.sistant or Justice of the Peace: And the like methods shall or may be used and observed as to Vagrant or Suspected Persons, found wandring from Town to Town, having no Certificate as aforesaid, who shall be seized and conveyed before the next Authority to be Examined and Disposed of according to Law: And if any Free Negroes shall travel without such Certificate or Pa.s.s, and be stopped, seized, or taken up, they shall pay all Charges arising thereby."--_Acts and Laws of His Majesty's Province of Connecticut, 87._

=79. Connecticut:--Pursuit of runaways.=

=No date given.= "It is also ordered, that when any servants shall runn from theire Masters, or any other inhabitants shall privately goe away with supition of ill intentions, It shall bee lawfull for the next Magistrate, or the constable and two of the chiefest inhabitants where no magistrate is, to press men and boates or pinnaces, at the publique charge, to persue such persons by sea or land, and bring them back by force of armes."--_Colonial Records of Connecticut, I. 539._

=80. Pennsylvania:--Harboring fugitives.=

=Anno Regni Duodecimo Georgii Regis. [1726?]= An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this Province. "And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that no Person or Persons whatsoever shall Employ, or knowingly harbour, conceal, or entertain other Peoples Slaves at their Houses, Out-houses, or Plantations, without the Master or Owner's consent; excepting in Distress of weather or other Extraordinary Occasion, under the Penalty of Thirty Shillings for every twenty-four Hours he or they shall entertain or harbour him or them as aforesaid."--_Province Laws of Pennsylvania, 325._

APPENDIX B.

_NATIONAL ACTS AND PROPOSITIONS RELATIVE TO FUGITIVE SLAVES. 1778-1854._

This Appendix contains all the important bills, acts, and treaties from the foundation of the Const.i.tution to 1860. Many minor propositions may be found through the foot-notes to the text of Chapter II. The figures in brackets [] refer back to the text of the monograph.

[Sidenote: Treaties and First Act.]

=1. Fugitive clause in treaty with the Delawares.=

=1778, Aug. 7.= Art. IV. "And it is further agreed between the parties aforesaid, that neither shall entertain or give countenance to the enemies of the other, or protect in their respective States, criminal fugitives, servants, or slaves, but the same to apprehend, and secure and deliver to the State or States to which such enemies, criminals, servants, or slaves respectively belong."--_Statutes at Large, VII. 14._

=2. Fugitive clause in the treaty of peace. [---- 13, 22.]=

=1782-83. 1782, Nov. 13.= Provisional articles. =1783, Sept. 3.= Definitive treaty. "His Britannic Majesty shall, with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any negroes or other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said United States."--_Treaties and Conventions, ed. of 1889, pp. 372, 378._

=3. Fugitive clauses in Indian treaties. [-- 13.]=

=1784-86. 1784, Oct. 22.= Treaty with the Six Nations, Art. I.

=1785, Jan. 21.= Treaty with the Wyandots, etc. Art. I. "All the prisoners white and black" taken by the Indians "shall be delivered up"

or "restored."--_Statutes at Large, VII. 15, 16._

=4. Fugitive clause in King's ordinance. [-- 14.]=

=1785, April 6.= Report of the Committee on Government of the Western Territory. "Provided that always, upon the escape of any person into any of the States described in the resolve of Congress of the twenty-third day of April, 1784, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the thirteen original States, such fugitive might be lawfully reclaimed and carried back to the person claiming his labor or service, this resolve notwithstanding."--_Papers of Old Congress_, XXI. 331, cited in _Bancroft, History of the United States (last Revision), VI.

133._

=5. Fugitive clauses in Indian treaties. [-- 13.]=

=1785, Nov. 28.= Treaty with the Cherokees, Art. I.

=1786, Jan. 3.= Treaty with the Choctaws, Art. I.

=1786, Jan. 10.= Treaty with the Chickasaws, Art. I.

Identical clauses. The Indians "to restore all the Negroes and all other property taken during the late war."

=1786, June 31.= Treaty with the Shawanees. Art. I. "All prisoners white and black taken in the late war from among the citizens of the United States by the Shawanee nation shall be restored."--_Statutes at Large, VII. 18, 21, 25, 26._

=6. Fugitive clause in Northwest Ordinance of 1787. [-- 14]=

=1787, July 13.= Art. VI. "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; _provided_, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service aforesaid." Read first time, July 11, 1787. Pa.s.sed July 13, 1787.-- _Journals of Congress, XII. 84, 92._

=7. Fugitive clause in the Const.i.tution. [-- 15.]=