454 HISTORY 



made for slaves going to and from market with such articles as they were 

 allowed to trade in. According to the code the master of a runaway slave was 

 required to advertise a description of the property thus escaped; otherwise if 

 the slave were executed or transported for any crime the master could receive 

 no satisfaction from the public treasury. There were standing rewards, author- 

 ized by the law, for the encouragement of the free blacks in the arrest of 

 fugitives and in the capture or destruction of rebellious slaves. If, on the 

 other hand, a slave assisted another slave to secure himself in hiding, or aided 

 him in making good his escape, he made himself liable to a flogging of from 

 forty to a hundred stripes. A free colored person, taking part in such an 

 undertaking, became liable to a fine, or imprisonment imtil he consented to 

 pay the same. The purchase or sale of runaways was forbidden under heavy 

 penalty. A reward of £1 was offered to a freeman who should return a de- 

 serting slave."^ 



Workhouse keepers were required to advertise monthly lists of all returned 

 runaways in their custody. Any slave, still in custody at the end of twelve 

 months, could be sold at auction, and the proceeds devoted to the maintenance 

 of the workhouse. The escape of slaves from the custody of the workhouse 

 was treated with not less than fifty lashes on the bare back of the offender. 

 Slaves, who succeeded in prolonging their stay away from the place to which 

 they belonged for six months, were liable to punishment at the discretion of 

 two justices of the slave court; those staying away longer than six months 

 became liable to transportation for life, or to suffer such other punishment as 

 the justices saw fit to inflict, not extending to life or limb. 



An attempt to run away from the Colony, which inevitably involved the 

 heinous offense of stealing a boat, was also punishable with transportation, or 

 5uch penalties as the slave court saw fit to inflict. A free colored person, assist- 

 ing in such an enterprise, made himself liable to transportation for life, and if 

 he returned to the Colony, he was to suffer death without benefit of clergy."* 



Denial of the Right to Cultivate Land, etc. — Owners or masters could 

 deny to their slaves the right to cultivate, on their own account, cotton and 

 certain other crops, to rake salt, or to raise cattle or any other live stock. They 

 could not prevent slaves from cultivating peas or beans, nor even from dealing 

 in and raising corn and cotton, when the master was not engaged in the same 

 occupation. Slaves were allowed to go about dealing in dry goods, only on 



"^10 Geo. IV, 13. 

 "' 10 Geo. IV, 13. 



