A SKETCH OF THE LAWS RELATING TO SLAVERY IN THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE UNITED Second Edition, WITH SOME ALTERATIONS AND CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS. BY GEORGE M. STROUD. PHILADELPHIA: HENRY LONGSTRETH, 347 MARKET ST. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by GEORGE M. STROUD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. PRINTED BY HENRY B ASHMEAD, GEORGE ST ADOVE ELEVENTH. THE state of slavery in this country, so far as it can be ascertained from the laws of the several independent sovereignties which belong to our confederacy, is the subject of the following sheets. This comprises a particular examination of the laws of the states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri. With respect to the remaining states, slavery in some having been abolished and in others never tolerated, a cursory notice of a few of their laws, chiefly important for the evidence which they furnish of the right of these states to the appellation of non-slave-holding, is all which the title or object of this work requires. The District of Columbia, though in this connection not properly denominated a state, yet, from its important character in being exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, deserves an equal share of attention. It happens, however, that this District, in regard to slavery as well as many other topics, is not regulated integrally by a code of laws enacted for the purpose by Congress, that body having, by an act dated February 27th, 1801, declared that the part of the District of Columbia which had been ceded to the United States by the state of Virginia should be governed by the laws which were then in force in Virginia, and that the other part, which had been ceded by the state of Maryland, should-in like manner be governed by the laws then in force in Maryland. But few alterations have been made in the laws affecting the condition of slaves in either of the states just named since the date of the act of Congress; the quotations, therefore, given from their respective codes, being applied in conformity with the distinction established by the act of Congress, may, with but little hazard of error, be received as the laws of the District of Columbia. Such provisions of the Constitution of the United States as might be fitly introduced into this sketch have been added in an Appendix. Several acts of Congress will be found inserted there also. These, however, are not numerous, since, from the peculiar relation which subsists between the Federal Government and the individual states, the former, except 3 |