Year Created: 1831
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EXCERPTS
Following Nat Turner’s rebellion, and fearing the rise of the abolition movement in the North, slaveholders throughout the South strengthened laws governing slaves and free people of color, known as “black codes.” The black codes governed enslaved people as well as four categories of free people:
“Free negroes,” or free-born African Americans.
"Former slaves,” enslaved people who had been liberated.
“Mulattoes,” people of mixed (both black and white) ancestry.
“Free persons of color,” which included all the other categories but could also be extended to Native Americans.
By lumping together free and enslaved people of color into one legal category, whites divided the population along racial lines, not along the legal categories of free and unfree.
In reading the legal code, you can clearly see the anxiety of southern whites over the possibility of slave insurrection and abolition.
These codes sought to limit the ability of enslaved people to read, write, mingle together in groups, preach, assemble, own weapons, earn money, and hold property, and they also limited slave owners’ ability to free their slaves. While the black codes brought free and unfree African Americans into one legal category, they also tried to divide the African American community. For example, several laws forbade free people of color from socializing with or marrying slaves.
Punishment by whipping was the most common type of punishment levied against black people, free or enslaved, in North Carolina. For slaves, this was the only practical option, because a slave had no property and could not pay fines. The only other option would have been hard labor, but that was the essence of slavery. At the same time state legislatures passed laws extending the number of offenses by which blacks could be whipped, courts became less likely to punish whites by the whip. The humiliation and bodily scars that came from whipping reinforced the differences between the races.
Note: Oyer and Terminer is an archaic legal term, inherited from the French and English, which means “to hear and determine.” By issuing a commission of Oyer and Terminer, the governor empowered people to investigate alleged crimes. If the commission found that there had been illegal activities, then the people responsible were formally charged.
Categories of Documents:
| Restrictions on slaves | |
| Slaves not to go armed. | No slave shall go armed with gun, sword, club or other weapon, or shall keep any such weapon, or shall hunt or range with a gun in the woods, upon any pretence whatsoever; and if any slave shall be found offending herein, it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons to seize, and take to his own use, such gun, sword or other weapon, and to apprehend and deliver such slave to the next constable, who is enjoined and required, without further order or warrant, to give such slave twenty lashes on his or her bare back, and to send him or her home: and the master or owner of such slave shall pay the taker-up of such armed slave the same reward as by this act is allowed for taking up runaways. (1741 c 35 s 35, 36, 37. 1831 c 44) |
| No slave to go off his masters plantation without leave in writing. | No slave shall go from off the plantation or seat of land where such slave shall be appointed to live without a certificate of leave, in writing, for so doing from his or her master or overseer. (1741 c 35 s 38) |
| Slaves not to raise stock. | No slave shall be permitted on any pretence whatever, to raise any horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, but all such belonging to any slave, or in any slave’s mark, shall be seized and sold by the county wardens as directed in the act entitled an act concerning the Poor. (1741 c 35 s 39 1779 c 152 s 1) |
| No slave to teach another to read. | If any slave shall teach or attempt to teach, any other slave to read or write, the use of figures excepted, he or she may be carried before any justice of the peace, and on conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back. (1830 c 6 s 2) |
| Negroes not to meet for the purpose of dancing &c. without written per mission. | No person shall grant permission for any meeting or meetings of the negroes of others, or people of colour, at his, her or their houses, or on his, her or their plantation for the purpose of drinking or dancing, under the penalty of forfeiting twenty dollars on conviction of such offence, in any court having jurisdiction thereof, unless such slave shall have a special permit in writing or otherwise from his or her owner for that purpose.Page 5 (1794 c 406 s 2) |
| Slaves and free negroes not to preach in public. | It shall not be lawful under any pretence for any slave, or free person of colour to preach or exhort in public or in any manner to officiate as a preacher or teacher in any prayer meeting, or other association for worship where slaves of different families are collected together; and if any free person of colour shall be thereof duly convicted on indictment before any court having jurisdiction thereof, he shall, for each offence, receive, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare back; and where any slave shall be guilty of a violation of this act, he shall, on conviction before a single magistrate, receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes on his bare back. (1831 c 4 s 1) |
| Slaves entitled to trial by jury in the county and superior courts. | In all cases where the county or superior courts shall have jurisdiction of offences committed by slaves, the slave charged shall be entitled to a trial by a jury of good and lawful men, owners of slaves. (1793 c 381 s 1 1831 c 30 s 5) |
| Runaways and insurrection | |
| In cases of insurrection &c. a commission of Oyer and Terminer may issue. | In all cases of insurrection or rebellion, or of conspiracy to make insurrection, or to murder or rebel, or any such contemplated conspiracy, insurrection or rebellion, of any slave or slaves, upon the information and at the request of any five justices of the peace of the county in which such conspiracy, insurrection or rebellion shall happen or may be contemplated, the Governor for the time being, shall be authorised and have power to issue a commission of Oyer and Terminer, to any one of the judges of the Superior Courts of Law; and in case the said judges are necessarily engaged on their circuits, the Governor shall be authorised and have power to issue a commission to one of the judges of the Supreme Court, whose duty it shall be to hold said court forthwith, and who shall be clothed with all the powers necessary for the trial of all such slave or slaves, as may be charged with any of the before mentioned offences. (1831 c 30 s 1) |
Citation: “REVISED CODE--No. 105. SLAVES AND FREE PERSONS OF COLOR. AN ACT Concerning Slaves and Free Persons of Color.” North Carolina. Slaves and Free Persons of Color. an Act Concerning Slaves and Free Persons of Color, 1 Feb. 2001, docsouth.unc.edu/nc/slavesfree/slavesfree.html.