The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-08


| fmy - ~ intg Gl1r4 q ~ ~ SS = ~
declared, that no indentuse o. eentras4 ~ ~
| sonai scrvies, made By person Who had been
held AZ slave. out Of the 6tate, should be OBJ,
| liga&ory within the State, but the same was d.
clared void; and every such indentuss or con,
tract made since the 30th Of March, 1910, wns
also void and the person 90 held and bound va
declared free.
Any person convicted Of the forcible eoni1no.s
ment Of negro, mulatto, or mustee, with intent
to cause his removal beyond the limits Of the
State to be held as slave, IL subjected to fine
not exceeding one thousand dollars, and TO inn
pris0nment at hard labor for term not lon0sr
than fourteen years.
Every negro, malatto, OF mustee, within ths
State, born before the 9Th Of July. l790. VA
declared free from and after the 4th Of July,
1927. ~
The State of New Jersey IL the last which has
joined the society Of non-slaveholding States.
Though the slaves have generally borne Rreater
ratio to the white population In New Jersey, than
in any other north Of Delaware, yet alavery has
not there appeared in ita most repulsjve garb
The slaves have generally been treated with
lenity, and their wants comfortably snpplied~--
This may be assigned as probable cause Of
the hardness. of her movements Ia the abolition
Of slavery.
In 1886. a law was enacted, imposing PEN
atty of ESQ ($l33a,) Cor bringing into dc State
any slave imported from Africs since l77R A
penalty OF Gao was imposed upan any Resson.
except an emigrant settling In the Ginfs, who
should bring in a slave, though aueh&laye had
not been imported since l778. As,
A law Of 1888. provides that no slave who
had resided one year last past in the State,
should be removed ont Of II. with view Of
changing his place of abode, without laoaI con-
sent, under penalty Of f2O; exoept that par
sons permanently removing from the State had
liberty to take their slaves with them. Masters
and mistresses Of negro and mulatts slaves and
servants, were enjoined to teach them to .yead
while under twenty-one years Of age, under 4
penalty of f6 for neglect or refusal. Some
further Moderation Of the laws respecting slaves
was made in 1898, and an emancipatinQ clause,
in the act Of that year, was lost in the House of
Assembly by single vote.
Atlength an act dated February 18th, 1904,
was procured for the gradual abolition Of sla-
very; which provides that every child born Of a
slave within the State after the 30th Of July,
then next ensuing, shonld be free but remain
as servant to the owner of the mother. and the
executors, &C., of such owner; if male, until
'"c nEo VI t"e"Sy-hSe years. At0 II I0m2les
until the age of twenty-one years.
All the children 80 born to be recorded, within
nine months after BIRTH, in the books of the
clerk of the county. Persons entitled to the
| service Of such children may, at the end of the
first year, abandon their rights; in which case
the children are to be bound out, by the-over-
seer of the poor, till they attain the ages of
twenty-five or twenty-one years, according AZ
they are males or females respectively.
1t will then be perceived, that in several of the
States, the slaves are not emancipated, but left
to wear out their lives in servitude. The laws
provided against the introduction Of slaves into
those States, either by birth or immigration.
We accordingly find few slaves reported in
several of these free States, in the census Of
1840
In some cases, however, these reports are
manifesty erroneous; servants for limited
time being returned slaves. Thus in Pennsyl-
vania, 81 slaves reported, SO of whom are re-
presented az under 55 years of age. Yet, by
the act of 1880, no person could be held as
| slave for life, who was not recorded before the
LIST of 18th month in that year. On the North
west Of Ohio, slavery was excluded by the or
dinance Of 1887, and subsequently by their own
constitution and yet, in several Of them, few
slaves are reported in their census.