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1854, c. 52. An act for the defence of liberty and for the punishment of kidnapping. Sec. 1. "Every person who shall falsely and maliciously declare, represent, or pretend that any free person within the State is a slave or owes service or labor to any person or persons with intent to procure, or to aid or assist in procuring, the forcible removal of such free person from this State as a slave," is declared punishable by fine and imprisonment. Claim of apprenticeship for time not included. 2. Declaration of slavery "shall not be deemed proved except by testimony of at least two credible witnesses testifying to facts directly leading to establish the truth of," &c. Declares false representations, &c., punishable by fine and imprisonment. 3. Depositions not to be received on trial. 4. Punishment for resisting the enforcement of this act.

1858, c. 37. An act to secure freedom to all persons within this State. Sec. 1. "No person within this State shall be considered as property, or subject as such to sale, purchase or delivery; nor shall any person within the limits of this State at any time be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. 2. Due process of law mentioned in the preceding section of this act shall in all cases be defined to mean the usual process and form in force by the laws of this State, and issued by the courts thereof; and under such process such person shall be entitled to a trial by jury. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of liberty, arrested or detained, on the ground that such person owes service or labor to another person not an inhabitant of this State, either party may claim a trial by jury; and in such case challenges shall be allowed to the defendant," agreeably, &c. 4. Every person who shall deprive or, &c., any other person of his or her liberty, contrary to these provisions, declared punishable by fine and imprisonment. 5. African descent no disqualification from citizenship of the State. 6. "Every person, who may have been held as a slave, who shall come or be brought or be in this State, with or without the consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come or be brought or be involuntarily, in any way, in this State shall be free." 7. "Every person who shall hold or attempt to hold, in this State, in slavery or as a

slave, any person mentioned as a slave in the sixth section of this act, or any free person, in any form, for any time, however short, under the pretence that such person is or has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the State prison for a term not less than one year nor more than fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars.”

$549. LEGISLATION OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT.'

1777, Oct. An act discharging owners, emancipating slaves, from liability for their support in certain cases. See Rev. of 1808, p. 625.

1784. In a revision of the laws, edited at this date, after the colonial charter of Charles II., the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, is "An act containing an abstract and declaration of the rights and privileges of the people of this State, and securing the same." In this, after a preamble, which is in the nature of public constitutional law,' it is further enacted, "that no man's life shall," &c., &c., as in the Fundamentals; and also, "that all the free inhabitants of this or any other of the United States of America, and foreigners in amity with this State, shall enjoy the same justice and law within this State which is general for the State, in all cases proper for the cognizance of the civil authority and courts of judicature within the same, and that without partiality or delay."

In the same revision, p. 9, under title, Arrests and imprisonments, the law respecting the disposing of debtors in service

1 See vol. I., p. 273.

* This preamble is as follows:-The people of this State, being by the Providence of God free and independent, have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign and independent State; and having from their ancestors derived a free and excellent Constitution of government, whereby the legislature depends on the free and annual election of the people, they have the best security for the preservation of their civil and religious rights and liberties, “and for as much as the free fruition," &c. (as in the colonial Fundamentals, ante, I. 258, 268). But, enacted and declared by the governor, council and representatives in general court assembled and by the authority of the same, that the ancient form of civil government contained in the charter from Charles the Second, king of England, and adopted by the people of this State, shall be and remain the civil Constitution of this State under the sole authority of the people thereof, independent of any king or prince whatever; and that this republic is and shall forever be and remain a free, sovereign and independent State, by the name of the State of Connecticut." Laws, folios 1784-1793, T. Green, New London.

is modified by a provision that the "court shall have power to order and dispose such debtor in service, for the purpose aforesaid, to some inhabitant of this State."

In declaring who shall be freemen, no distinction of persons in respect to color or race is made; see the Revision, p. 88. An act concerning Indian, mulatto, and negro servants and slaves, ib. 233, incapacitates servants from contracting, and contains provisions regulating these classes, in the language and to the effect of the colonial laws before cited. It also provides, "And if any free negroes shall travel without such certificate or pass and be stopped, seized, or taken up as aforesaid, they shall pay all charges arising thereby." Also, "And whereas, the increase of slaves in this State is injurious to the poor, and inconvenient," be it, &c., "That no Indian, negro, or mulatto slave shall at any time hereafter be brought or imported into this State by sea or land, from any place or places whatsoever to be disposed of or left or sold within this State. Rev. of 1821, Tit. 93. The act concludes, "And whereas, sound policy requires that the abolition of slavery should be effected as soon as may be consistent with the rights of individuals and the public safety and welfare, Therefore, be it, &c., that no negro or mulatto child that shall, after the first day of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, be born within this State, shall be held in servitude longer than until they arrive to the age of twenty-five years, notwithstanding the mother or parent of such child was held in servitude at the time of its birth; but such child at the age aforesaid shall be free, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding."

1788. An act to prevent the slave trade. Sec. 1. Provides that no "citizen or inhabitant of this State" shall receive on

'The same revision, p. 110.—An act respecting persons who have committed crimes in other States and, to escape from justice, flee into this State. "That if any person or persons that have been convicted of crime in any other State, for which facts corporal punishment might be inflicted if committed in this State, and (before he or they have received condign punishment) shall escape and flee into this State, or having committed any such crime, and being pursued by the order of authority to bring him or them to justice, such offenders may be apprehended by order of the authority, and if on examination before lawful authority and inquiry into the matter it shall appear that such person or persons have been convicted and have escaped, or are flying from prosecution as aforesaid, he or they may be remanded back and delivered to the authority or officers of the State from which such escape is made, in order," &c.

board his vessel any inhabitants of Africa, "with intent to be imported or transported as slaves or servants for a term of years." 3. Provides that if any person shall kidnap, decoy, or forcibly carry off out of this State any free negro, Indian, or mulatto, or any person entitled to freedom at the age of twentyfive years, inhabitants or residents within this State, or shall be aiding or assisting therein, and be thereof duly convicted," &c., shall pay a fine to the State, and damages to the person injured. 4. Provides "that nothing in this act shall operate to prevent persons removing out of this State, for the purpose of residence, from carrying or transporting with them such negroes or mulattoes as belong to them, or to prevent persons living within this State from directing their servants out of this State, about their ordinary and necessary business. T. Green, ed. of L. p. 368. Suppl. are an act of 1789 and 1792. Hudson & Goodwin's ed. of 1808, p. 628; Rev. of 1821, Tit. 22, § 17.

1792.-Suppl. to act of 1784. Permits emancipation of slaves between twenty-five and forty-five years. Hudson & Goodwin's ed. p. 625.

1797, May.-Suppl. to act of 1784 enacts "that no negro or mulatto child born within this State, after the first day of August, 1797, shall be held in servitude longer than until he or she arrive at the age of twenty-one years, notwithstanding the mother or parent of such child was held in servitude at the time of its birth; but such child, at the age aforesaid, shall be free, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." Ib. p. 626; Rev. of 1821, Tit. 93. See Windsor v. Hartford, 2 Conn. R. 356; that such child is not slave before the age aforesaid.

1797, October.-An act to repeal certain paragraphs of the "Act concerning Indian, mulatto, and negro servants and slaves," consisting of police regulations, including that forbidding free negroes to travel without a pass. Hudson & Goodwin's ed. p. 626.1

1810, May, c. 5 repeals the law for the satisfaction of

'In the revision of 1808, the above-cited statutes are arranged as chapters of Title CL. Slaves. In the same revision, Tit. LXXIX. contains "The act for remanding persons who have committed crimes in other States, and to escape from justice flee into this State," in the same terms as given in revision of 1784.

debts by personal servitude, as given in Tit. 13, c. 1, sec. 2 of the revision of 1808, following revision of 1784.

1818. A new State Constitution.' Some provisions declare rights in all persons, others in every citizen. Art. 6, sec. 2, limits the elective franchise to "white male citizens of the United States."

1821, May. Revision. Title 22. Crimes and punishments. Sec. 17. Against kidnapping, similar in terms to the third section of act of 1788, "Provided, that nothing in this section shall operate to prevent persons coming into this State, for the purpose of temporary residence, or passing through the same, from carrying with them their servants, nor to prevent persons moving out of the State, for the purpose of residence, from carrying and transporting with them such servants as belong to them, or to prevent persons living within this State from directing their servants out of the State, about their ordinary and necessary business.'

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Art. I. "That the great and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, we declare," &c. 1. "That all men, when they form a social compact, are equal in rights," &c. 2. "That the people have an indefeasible right to alter their form of government," &c. The language of the Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal," &c., is not employed. In the preamble, the people, acknowledging the providence of God in permitting them "to enjoy a free government," "ordain and establish the following Constitution and form of civil government," "in order more effectually to define, secure, and perpetuate the liberties, rights, and privileges which they have derived from their ancestors." That there is nothing in this Bill of Rights making slavery unlawful in Connecticut, see Jackson v. Bullock, 12 Conn. 42, 61, 62.

East Hartford v. Pitkin (1831), 8 Conn. 402, Williams, J.-"That slavery has existed in this State cannot be denied, and a few solitary cases still exist to attest the melancholy truth." Jackson v. Bullock (1837), 12 Conn. 42, Williams, J.-"Slavery exists here to a certain extent. A small remnant still remains," &c.; p. 59, Bissell, J.-" If it here assumed a milder and more mitigated form than in many of the States, this was rather the result of public sentiment and of a more correct state of moral feeling than of any peculiar mildness in our legislative enactments on the subject. But if the system was less rigorous, still it was a system of absolute unconditional servitude. Still the principle was recognized and acted upon that one man might have property in another, might command his services for life without compensation, and dispose of him as he would of any other chattel."

Judge Reeve, in his Law of Domestic Relations, 340, 341, said, "The law, as heretofore practiced in this State, respecting slaves, must now be uninteresting. I will, however, lest the slavery which prevailed in this State should be forgotten, mention some things that show that slavery here was very far from being of the absolute, rigid kind. The master had no control over the life of the slave. If he killed him, he was liable to the same punishment as if he killed a freeman. The master was as liable to be sued by the slave in an action for beating and wounding, or for immoderate chastisement, as he would be if he had thus treated an apprentice. A slave was capable of holding property in character of devisee, or legatee. If the

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