USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 81
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After 1808 the importation of negroes from foreign countries was prohibited by United States laws, but smuggling was common until the naval blockade of 1861. The importation of slaves was mainly done by British and New England slave traders. Newport, R. I., was one of the most famous ports whence skippers sailed,
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with more or less secrecy, to engage in the slave trade. The mes- sage of Acting-Governor Ware to legislature of 1815 recited: "The collector of the port of Mobile informs the executive that some negroes have been seized that were brought into that port con- trary to the laws of the United States. You will observe, gentle- men, that the laws subject such negroes to the disposal of the State or Territorial legislature, within whose bounds they were seized. I therefore submit to your consideration, the necessity of making some general law disposing of such property for the bene- fit of the Territory." In 1815, especially to prevent smuggling from Pensacola, there was a Mississippi statute which provided that such importations might be libelled before any superior court, and the slaves sold at auction.
During the summer of 1807 Governor Williams received infor- mation that an insurrection of blacks was suspected, and some of the most respectable citizens requested the patrol to be established. This was done, and a detachment of United States troops placed at Fort Dearborn. The planters were again agitated in January, 1811, by news of the insurrection among the slaves in the parish of St. John Baptist, at the west end of Lake Ponchartrain. About 500 negroes organized to march to New Orleans, and some plantations were ravaged. Gen. Hampton sent troops against them, and a con- siderable number were killed. Sixteen, regarded as leaders, were taken to New Orleans, "tried, convicted and excuted in an exem- plary manner, after which their heads were exposed on poles at dif- ferent points along the river." (Monette, II. 491.) The militia officers in the Natchez district were ordered to establish patrols on account of this insurrection. Each captain put out eight men to patrol at night in the respective company districts. The two companies at the town of Washington were, in case of alarm, to rendezvous at the government house and the home of Charles De France. Lieutenant White, commanding at Fort Adams, was called on to supply arms.
In 1812 the Territory was threatened by war with Great Britain, and was called on for troops to serve auxiliary to the regular forces under Gen. Wilkinson. When Governor Holmes had 700 men in camp for this purpose he reported to the general that remon- strances of the inhabitants forbade him to put more men at his call. This was not alone because of fear of the Indians. "In slave coun- tries the danger of insurrection always exists, and the inhabitants should be prepared to meet the event. . Nearly one half of the entire population are slaves." Both the British and Ameri- can commanders made use of negroes as soldiers in the ensuing war. Admiral Cochrane brought to Ship Island two black regi- ments he had enlisted on the eastern coast. Along the Mississippi river the British picked up 200 negro slaves. Gen. Jackson, in his report of the New Orleans campaign, said: "The two corps of col- ored volunteers have not disappointed the hopes that were formed of their courage and perseverance in the performance of their duty." These "men of color," as he entitled them in his address
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before the battle, he collected from "the shores of Mobile." At the close of the war the British had many refugees or captured slaves on Dauphine island, and Gen. Lambart would "not admit that the agreement of surrender of captured property covered slaves, as England did not recognize property in human beings." The own- ers were finally allowed to take them if they could persuade them to return by talking with them. (Colonial Mobile, 358).
Laws for the police regulation of the slave population, existed in the Natchez district when the United States took possession. Among the earliest regulations of the Territory it was forbidden to allow slaves to cultivate on their own account, because it af- forded a cloak for the selling of stolen cotton. There were laws also to protect the slaves from cruelty. Daniel Ryan, in 1802, having been found guilty of manslaughter for the killing of a negro, was sentenced to imprisonment in the jail, to be burned in the brawn of the left thumb and pay a fine of thirty dollars. The gov- ernor remitted the fine.
In Spanish times the commandants exercised the right of eman- cipating slaves, even against the consent of the owner, compensa- tion being given. By the act of 1805 it was unlawful to liberate slaves, except by permission of the general assembly for some meritorious act; even in that case the owner must give bond that the slave should not become a public charge, and even then the slave is liable to be taken to pay a debt contracted by the master before emancipation. The evidence of slaves was not taken in court except for or against each other. Slaves were forbidden to go from their place of abode to another without a pass, letter or token; if without the same any person could arrest the slave and take him before a justice for whipping; the owner or overseer of a plantation, entered by a slave without authority, could inflict similar punishment without recourse to a magistrate. Slaves were strictly forbidden to keep or carry firearms. Masters should not allow their slaves to be more than four hours absent without leave, on penalty of heavy fine. Meetings were prohibited by the regu- lation that no master should allow more than five slaves not his own to remain on his plantation at any one time, but this was not to be construed against their meeting at a public mill or any other lawful occasion by license in writing, "nor their going to church, and attending divine service, on the Lord's day, and be- tween sun-rising and sun-setting." Riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, trespasses and seditious speeches, were punishable by 39 stripes or less. Any white person, free negro or mulatto, meeting with slaves at any unlawful meeting (more than five without license) should be fined $20. Trading with slaves without the master's permission was punishable by heavy fine; letting a slave go at large and trade as a freeman or hire himself out, was an offence in the master that called for a fine of $50. "Whereas many times slaves run away and lie out hid, and lurking in swamps, woods and other obscure places, killing hogs and committing other injuries," pro- vision was made for rewards for their apprehension, out of the pub-
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lic treasury. Slaves were forbidden to keep dogs or own horses or mules. Conspiring to make insurrection was punishable by death. "And whereas it has been the humane policy of all civilized nations, where slavery has been permitted, to protect this useful but de- graded class of men from cruelty and oppression; therefore, no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted on any slave within this Territory." The limit of fine therefore was $200. In 1809 the selling of intoxicants to slaves was prohibited; patrols were authorized to kill all dogs owned by negroes; masters who allowed slaves to keep any live stock were to be fined $50; slaves found eight miles from home without a pass, or who had lain out two days without leave, were to be considered runaways. In 1809 it was made lawful for any citizen, on observing a slave offer any- thing for sale, without a written permit, to arrest the slave. (See Statutes of 1814.)
The first constitution of the State (1817) provided that the leg- islature should have no power to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners, except for "some distinguished service" to the State, in which case the owner should be compensated. The legislature was forbidden to prevent immigrants bringing with them as their bona fide property "such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States, so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this State." It was authorized to exclude slaves guilty of high crimes ; to pass laws to permit emancipation by owners, sav- ing the rights of creditors and protecting the public against indi- gence. "They shall have full power to prevent slaves from being brought into this State as merchandise; and, also, to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity ; to provide them with necessary clothing and provisions, to abstain from all injuries to them extending to life and limb." The clauses regarding slaves were modeled on the Kentucky constitution, but were less liberal toward emancipation. The first legislature, in January, 1818, passed an act to confirm the emancipation by the will of Col. Ben- ajah Osmun, of "his boy Jerry," but not without considerable dis- cussion. The next session passed an act authorizing John Baptiste Nicaisse to emancipate his daughter, "the mulatto girl named Isa- bella," "saving, however, the right of creditors," and on condition that her father give bond that she should not become a public charge. (Acts of 1818, p. 27-28).
Governor Holmes, first governor of the State, said in his first message: "By the constitution you are invested with the author- ity to enact laws to prevent slaves from being brought into the State for the purpose of being disposed of as merchandise. Under existing circumstances I am aware, gentlemen, of the difficulty you will find in devising any mode that will be adequate to put an entire end to this odious traffic; but I trust that in your wisdom you will be enabled to adopt such measures as may in some degree les- sen the evil. As the practice is now prohibited by most of the States where domestic slavery is tolerated, it is evident that great
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numbers will be brought to this State, and principally those of the most vicious character, unless by some means we can render the trade at least precarious to those who engage in it. I am fully persuaded, gentlemen, that you will deem this subject worthy of your most serious consideration." The legislature of 1819 provided that slaves imported for sale should be registered, with proof that they had not been guilty of "murder, burglary, arson, rape or grand larceny," an import tax of $20 each was imposed, for the benefit of the Natchez hospital; but this did not apply to slaves imported by a citizen for his own use, except from Louisiana and Alabama. Any free negro or mulatto who should enter the State should depart on warning within thirty days, or be sold. Governor Holmes in his next message, said the law was difficult to enforce, and one of the judges of the supreme court had declared it to be in conflict with the constitution of the United States. He asked the legisla- ture to exercise "the power, with which they are invested by the constitution, of preventing, unconditionally, the importation of slaves, as merchandize. The evils arising from this odious prac- tice, are constantly, tho' imperceptibly, increasing, and must ulti- mately result in consequences of a most serious nature, unless the traffic is wholly prohibited." The assembly did not do this, though a bill to prohibit importation was introduced by Joseph E. Davis.
At the first session of the supreme court of Mississippi, June, 1818, in the case of "Harry and others" to assert their right to free- dom because they were brought from the French district of Indi- ana and sold in 1816, the court ruled that these negroes were made free by the ordinance of 1787, adding, "Slavery is condemned by reason of the laws of nature. It exists and can only exist through municipal regulations, and in matters of doubt, is it not an unques- tioned rule that courts must lean in favorem vitae et libertatis." (Harry vs. Decker, Walker, 36.) In June, 1820, the court consid- ered the first appeal from a sentence of death for murder. It was the case of a white man who had killed a negro, and sought relief by raising in question the personal rights of negroes. Judge Clarke, in pronouncing the opinion, said: "In some respects slaves may be considered as chattels, but in others they are regarded as men." The syllabus reads: "The ancient laws of Rome giving power over the life of a slave never extended here. Slavery exists not by force of the law of nature, or of nations, but by virtue only of the positive provisions of the law; to these the master must look for all his rights, and they do not confer the power of taking the life of the negro." The records of the early State period show occasional orders that a force of militia attend the sheriff to pre- serve order during the execution of negroes for murder. Occasion- ally also there are records of pardons to negroes sentenced to death. -
The Territorial code was the basis of subsequent codes. It was embodied, revised and additional restrictions added, in the Poin- dexter code of 1822. The death penalty was provided, as it had been before, for any slave who should maim a white person, or at-
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tempt to commit rape, or any capital crime, or arson. It was pro- vided that when proof had been made to a court that any negro or mulatto had "given false testimony" he should, without further trial, "be ordered by the said court, to have one ear nailed to the pillory, and there to stand for the space of one hour, and then the said ear to be cut off, and thereafter the other ear nailed in like manner and cut off at the expiration of one other hour, and more- over to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back, well laid on, at the public whipping post, or such other punishment as the court shall think proper, not extending to life or limb." Just what were the provisions in the Poindexter code that were used against him in politics, it does not appear. The code was said at the time to prohibit any religious instruction of slaves. The act passed in place of these objectionable sections was similar to the Territorial laws above quoted in a general way, regulating the vis- iting and meeting together of slaves. This act to ameliorate the Poindexter code prohibited any assemblage of slaves to be taught reading or writing, under any pretext, but provided that this should not forbid masters giving slaves written consent to attend relig- ious worship, if the same were conducted by a regular white min- ister.
The proposition in 1819 to prohibit slavery in the new State of Missouri, as it had been prohibited in the Northwest Territory and States, caused the first open sectional dispute on the subject, although an even division of the United States between slave States and free States had been long before this quietly maintained. (See Statehood.) To preserve the national tolerance of slavery, as well as obtain an outlet for the negro increase, it became neces- sary to insist upon the extension of slavery into new States. But the Missouri compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery, west of the Mississippi, north of an extension of the south line of Virginia and Kentucky, except that slavery should be permitted in Missouri. This made the acquisition of Texas inevitable. In 1825 the legis- lature refused to concur in the resolution of the legislature of Ohio, "proposing a plan for the emancipation of slaves in the United States," and approved the constitutional amendment proposed by Georgia, to prohibit the interstate slave trade, in other words, "the importation or ingress of any person of color into any one of the United States, contrary to the laws of said States." In Janu- ary, 1826, resolutions of the States of Delaware, Connecticut, Illi- nois and Indiana, concurring with the Ohio resolution, were re- ferred to a committee of which William Haile (q. v.) was chair- man. Haile reported resolutions, which were adopted by the ma- jority of both houses of the general assembly. The report was: "That, under the Constitution and Laws of our Country, the right of property in Slaves is as sacred and inviolate as that of any other species of property whatever. However great may be the national evil of slavery, and however much we may regret it, circumstances over which we have no control have rendered it inevitable, and places it without the pale of legislative authority. We, therefore,
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cannot concur in any arrangement for their emancipation, by any legislative enactment, without violating the constitutional rights of our citizens. Any interference in our own internal concerns upon subjects of this kind, is only calculated to engender feelings of prejudice, which, if fostered by the continued efforts of the Non-Slave holding States, may, eventually, produce consequences deplorable to society, and tend to weaken that bond of union and fellowship which should exist between all the members of the same confederacy. Your committee conceive, also, that any meas- ures which might be taken by other States to ameliorate the condi- tion of the slave would tend rather to aggravate than relieve his misfortunes. By a gradual emancipation the hopes and prospects of those who remain in slavery would be so far excited as to create a spirit of discontent and of insurrection, which might not only en- danger the interests but the personal safety and lives of our citizens. And it is, therefore, with serious apprehensions for our peace and safety that your committee witness the combined efforts of several of the Non Slave holding States in their behalf. By holding out the semblance of aid and prospect of freedom they might be easily stimulated to rebellion, and our citizens might fall victims to a pol- icy against the exercise of which they protest, and in which policy they are determined not to participate. We, therefore, most sin- cerely deprecate and will continue firmly to resist all interference on the part of other States. The Southern States, who suffer, and are compelled, from circumstances, to endure the evil, ought to be the best judges of the remedy ; and so soon as they can concur in any expedient for their relief, it will be time enough to adopt it. This State, in the language of Georgia, 'claims the right with her Southern sisters, whose situation is similar, of moving this ques- tion when an enlarged system of benevolence and philanthropic exertions in consistency with her rights and interests shall render it practicable.'" On this point Gen. Felix Houston wrote several years later to a New York paper that the planters apprehended no injury from their slaves, and looked to no power on earth, not even the Union, for protection. They were abundantly supplied with arms, and could easily control the black population. "If the South are so safe, it may be asked why are they so sensitive on this sub- ject? I will answer-they are sensitive from motives of interest and humanity. He who makes my negroes dissatisfied with their situation, makes them less useful to me, and puts me under the necessity of dealing more rigorously with them. Throughout the whole south it is considered disgraceful not to cloth and feed negroes well, or to treat them cruelly, and there are very few who have the hardihood to brave public sentiment. But if negroes become disorderly, discontented and disobedient, the neces- sity requires that they should either be set at large at once, or their privileges curtailed, and discipline made more rigorous till they are brought into complete subjection-there is no middle course. Again, there is a possibility, if they become rebellious, that they may do damage in a single neighborhood, and destroy
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the lives of a few women and children-the consequence of which would be that then whites would be under the necessity of putting great numbers of the misguided wretches to death. Such was the case at Southampton."
In his annual message of 1828 Gerard C. Brandon, the first native governor, said : "The southern States generally having passed laws to prevent the importation of slaves for the purpose of traffic, has left Mississippi almost the only receptacle for the surplus black population of the middle States, where their labor is not found so productive as in the south. The vast number annually imported into our State has excited uneasiness in the minds of our fellow citizens and caused them to feel much solicitude that we should adopt the policy of our neighboring States. Slavery is an evil at best, and has invariably operated oppressively on the poorer class of every community into which it has been introduced, by de- stroying that mutual dependence which would otherwise exist be- tween the rich and the poor, and excludes from the State, in pro- portion to the number of slaves, a free white population, through the means of which alone can we expect to take rank with our sister States." But no restriction was made, except by taxation. The State income from this source in 1831 was a trifle over $3,000, In 1830 the board of internal improvements recommended the plan urged by Charles Lynch, that the State should become the owner of a body of slaves, to be used in public works.
After the election of Gen. Jackson (1828) there was, much less toleration of the discussion of slavery. Also, "The horrible slave insurrection of August, 1831, at Southampton, Va., caused a panic that resulted in mobs and the expulsion from the South of a num- ber of persons suspected of tampering with the slaves, and in the general strengthening of the patrol system." (Birney and his Times, 72). The biographer of James G. Birney writes: "At the time his abhorrence of slavery was banishing him from his native South (1832), he shuddered at the thought of the horrors he thought would follow the general immediate abolition of slavery. To him, as to most Southerners, it appeared to involve social convulsions, the overthrow of civilization in the South, and the substitution of immorality and barbarism."
The constitution of 1832 followed the constitution of 1817, with this addition: "The introduction of slaves into this State as mer- chandise or for sale, shall be prohibited from and after the first day of May, 1833; provided, that the actual settler or settlers shall not be prohibited from purchasing slaves in any State in this Union, and bringing them into this State for their own individual use, until the year 1845."
An attempt was made in 1833 to amend the constitution by strik- ing out this clause, but the amendment failed of adoption by pop- ular vote. "It was rejected by the people," said Judge Sharkey. Not all the planters, by any means, were disposed to sanction the inter-state slave trade, and there was naturally much opposition to negro labor among the "mechanics," as white laboring men
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were called. But the doctrine was set up by those interested in the traffic that the prohibition in the constitution was inoperative without an act of legislature. The legislature did not enact any penalties, immediately. In 1833 a tax was laid on negroes im- ported, and in 1837 another act imposed a fine of $500 and impris- onment for each slave introduced. The first enactment, it is inti- mated by Judge Sharkey, was unconstitutional. Contracts entered into for slaves imported as merchandise were held to be invalid in three cases brought before the High Court, but afterward the Supreme court of the United States, in the case of Groves vs. Slaughter (15 Peters) held such contracts valid, on the ground that the constitutional prohibition was a mere mandate to the legisla- ture to carry out the provision by providing proper penalties. In the case of Brien vs. Williamson, (7 Howard, 14) Chief Justice Sharkey reiterated the ruling of the highest court of Mississippi that a constitutional prohibition was operative without an act of legislature, and that, even if it were admitted, as bearing on the validity of a contract, that the clause of the constitution was a mere mandate, "the mere mandate was a law which will avoid the contract which was made in violation of its spirit. Our legislation has looked and tended to this point [prohibition of, the slave trade] since 1817. The prohibitory provision
established the policy of the State." He also remarked : "Judge Story has told us that the mandatory provisions in the constitution of the United States, addressed to congress, were so imperative that they could not be defeated. How is it that a mandatory provision in our constitution should be less obliga- tory?"
The slave trade was constitutionally prohibited in Mississippi from 1832 to 1857, according to the rulings of the highest court of the State. But the financial interests overcame this prohibition. Under the constitution of 1832, also, a tax was imposed upon vendors in slaves, but several judges ruled the tax unconstitutional, and the restriction failed.
The great importation of slaves from Virginia and Kentucky, and their sale on credit, during the opening up of the Indian coun- try, was one of the main causes of the financial crash. At the same time the slave gangs along the Ohio and Potomac rivers, practically the same as in Africa where the slave trade was maintained, aroused the abolition sentiment in Kentucky and Ohio and in con- gress to great intensity.
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