Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus

H 101 - Lab Exercise: The Denmark Vesey Insurrection (1822)

The (South Carolina) Negro Law of 1740

Description:

The Negro Law of 1740 was enacted in the colony of South Carolina as a consequence of the Gullah War, a series of uprisings in the 1730's in which African-Americans appeared in arms in St. Paul's Parish, in St. John's Parish and in Charleston, South Carolina. The law applied to all men of color without respect to status and created the special court and procedure that was used in the Vesey Trials.

Provisions

14. And whereas slaves may be harbored and encouraged to commit offences, and concealed and received by free Negroes; and such free Negroes may escape the punishment due to their crimes for want of sufficient and legal evidence against them, Be it enacted, that the evidence of any free Indian or slave without oath, shall in like manner be allowed and admitted in all cases, against any free Negroes, Indians (free Indians in amity with this government only excepted), mulatto, or mestizo, and all crimes and offences committed by free Negroes, Indians (except as before excepted), shall be proceeded in, heard, tried, adjudged, and determined by the Justices and freeholders appointed by this act for the trial of slaves, in like manner, order and form as is hereby directed and appointed for the proceedings and trials of crimes and offences committed by slaves, any law, statute, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

15. If any slave in this Province shall commit any crime or offence whatsoever, which by the laws of England, or of this Province, now in force, is or has been made felony without benefit of the clergy, and for which the offender by law ought to suffer death; every such slave, being duly convicted according to the directions of this act, shall suffer death, to be inflicted in such manner as the Justices, by and with the advice and consent of the freeholders, who shall give judgment on the conviction of such slave, shall direct and appoint.

17. Any slave who shall be guilty of homicide of any sort upon any white person, except by misadventure, or in defence of his master or other person under whose care and government such slave shall be, shall upon conviction thereof as aforesaid, suffer death. And every slave who shall raise or attempt to raise an insurrection in this Province (or shall endeavor to delude or entice any slave to run away and leave this Province), every such slave and slaves, and his and their accomplices, aiders and abettors, shall upon conviction as aforesaid, suffer death. Provided always, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the Justices who shall pronounce sentence against such slaves, by and with the advice and consent of the freeholders as aforesaid, if several slaves shall receive sentence at one time, to mitigate and alter the sentence of any slave other than such as shall be convicted of the homicide of a white person, who they shall think may deserve mercy, and may inflict corporal punishment (other than death) on any such slave, as they in their discretion shall think fit, anything contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. Provided, that one or more of the said slaves who shall be convicted of the crimes or offences aforesaid, where several are concerned, shall be executed for example, to deter others from offending in the like kind.

Vesey Insurrection Main Page H101

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