448 HISTORY 



in compliance Avith these regulations. They applied to reputed husbands and 

 wives, and to reputed, as well as to legitimate, children/" 



Civic Rights. — N'ot only were slaves not allowed to vote in the Bahamas, but 

 it was late in the history of slavery when colored freemen were admitted to the 

 exercise of the franchise."" Slaves were not allowed to serve in the local militia. 

 Free blacks were also excluded from militia service until 1S04. After that 

 time there remained prejudicial restrictions on their exercise of that right, 

 even until after the abolition of slavery."' The restrictions in respect to jury 

 service were nearly the same as were those just mentioned in the same period.*' 

 Slave courts were regularly established l)y the later statutes on slavery, before 

 the passage of which they had been institutions of rather bad character. 



By a statute of the year 1805 the General Court was authorized to try 

 suits for the freedom of slaves. As that court sat only in the island of Xew 

 Providence, other measures were necessary for trials in the Out-islands. A 

 magistrate in an Out-island was empowered to summon three free-holders to 

 assist him, on sufficient evidence, and compel a master either to give up his 

 claim to a slave, or to pay the expenses of sending the latter to Nassau for 

 trial in the Oeneral Court.""' All other cases on behalf of slaves, that were 

 allowed to be tried at all, were tried in the lower magisterial courts, and later 

 in the slave courts. A slave court was constituted in 1834 consisting of two 

 justices and at least five jurors."* At their best these slave courts were poor 

 instruments for the measuring of justice, according to the standards of English 

 jurisprudence. It was difficult for a slave to get his case into court at all, 

 especially if it were against some white person. It made little difference what 

 were the grounds of his suit, or how serious they were to him. they were likely 

 to be ignored. 



The cause of the whole difficulty in this respect, which prevented the 

 slave from getting justice, was that slave evidence was not received in 

 the courts until almost the close of the period in which slavery existed. 

 The question of the removal of this evil involved the reformation of the whole 

 course of justice in the Bahamas. Slave evidence was either not received at 



^' 10 Geo. IV, 13. 

 »°47 Geo. Ill, 1. 



'' 36 Geo. Ill, 4; also Smyth's Ds., No. 140. 

 »=44 Geo. Ill, 10. 



'= 45 Geo. Ill, 20, and 7 Geo. IV, 7. From the state of opinion it is not probable 

 that a strict application of this provision occurred in many cases. 

 "'4 Geo. IV, 6. 



