Slavery in the United States was governed by an extensive body of law developed from the 1660s to the 1860s. Every slave state had its own slave code and body of court decisions. All slave codes made slavery a permanent condition, inherited through the mother, and defined slaves as property, usually in the same terms as those applied to real estate. Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a party to a contract. Since marriage is a form of a contract, no slave marriage had any legal standing. All codes also had sections regulating free blacks, who were still subject to controls on their movements and employment and were often required to leave the state after emancipation.

When the District of Columbia was established in 1800, the laws of Maryland, including its slave laws, remained in force. Additional laws on slavery and free blacks were then made by the District, and by Southern standards its slave codes were moderate. Slaves were permitted to hire out their services and to live apart from their masters. Free blacks were permitted to live in the city and to operate private schools. By 1860 the District of Columbia was home to 11,131 free blacks and 3,185 slaves.

The manuscript volume shown with the published slave code is arranged by topic, listing relevant sections of Maryland and District of Columbia laws as well as the applicable court decisions. It is almost certainly a "practice book," produced within a law firm for the use of its attorneys and clerks, who could refer to it when drafting contracts and legal briefs. That such a book exists indicates something of the volume and routine character of legal work surrounding transactions in human property. Slavery in the District of Columbia ended on April 16, 1862, when President Lincoln signed a law that provided for compensation to slave owners. An Emancipation Claims Commission hired a Baltimore slave trader to assess the value of each freed slave, and awarded compensation for 2,989 slaves. The printed slavery code exhibited here was published on March 17, 1862, just one month before slavery in the District ended and the laws became of historical interest only.

This Black Code states that no slave could be acquired without the owner's knowlege (presumably in reference to run-away slaves) and that if a negro or mulatto servant disburb the peace or strike a white person, he shall be whipped. It seems that at the beginning of the eighteenth century Black slaves knew limits to the abuse they would endure and acted accordingly. It would be wrong to assume that slaves were either docile or passive, and in making the slave an object of legislation, he could thereby also become its subject.

An "Act of the General Assumbly of the Colony of Connecticut, May Session of 1730, for the Punishment of Negroes, Indian and Molatto Slaves, for Speaking Defamatory Words," indicates the same:

Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That if any Negro, Indian, or Molatto slave shall utter, publish and speak such words of any person that would by law be actionable if the same were uttered, published or spoken by any free person of any other, such Negro, Indian or Molatto slave, being thereof convicted before any one justice of the peace, (who are hereby empowered to hear and determine the same,) shall be punished by whipping, at the discretion of the assistant or justice before whom the tryal is, (respect being had to the circumstances of the case,) not exceeeding forty stripes. And the said slave, so convict, shall be sold to defray all charges arising thereby, unless the same be by his or their master or mistress paid and answered.

Provided nevertheless, That such Negro, Indian or Molatto slave be not debarred from making such pleas, and offering such evidences in his or their defense or justification on such tryal; as any other person might make use of, being sued in an action of defamation, so far as relates to the tryal before the justice; anything above to the contrary notwithstanding.

Physical punishment, such as whipping, was traditionally considered only appropriate for non-free, and such distinctions sactioned by law were basic to feudal society. However, we also see here the sense of a uniformity of law that applies to everyone, regardless of rank or privilege. This ambivalence reflects that a revolution was in process that would eventually make slavery incongruent.

Black Code continued...
return to American Slavery Exhibit - Part 3

References:
Slavery in the Capitol: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm009.html
Objects in the Dark, 1638-1775 The Black Codes: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/HBHP/exhibit/02/2.html
image credit, slave: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/slave.jpg