Chapter XXII: The Colony of North Carolina

1669-1775.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION OF NORTH CAROLINA FAVORABLE TO
THE SLAVE TRADE.--THE LOCKE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED.--WILLIAM
SAYLE COMMISSIONED GOVERNOR.--LEGISLATURE CAREER OF THE
COLONY.--THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF
ENGLAND INTO THE COLONY.--THE RIGHTS OF NEGROES CONTROLLED
ABSOLUTELY BY THEIR MASTERS.--AN ACT RESPECTING
CONSPIRACIES.--THE WRATH OF ILL-NATURED WHITES VISITED UPON
THEIR SLAVES.--AN ACT AGAINST THE EMANCIPATION OF
SLAVES.--LIMITED RIGHTS OF FREE NEGROES.

The geographical situation of North Carolina was favorable to the slave-trade.

Through the genius of Shaftesbury, and the subtle cunning of John Locke, Carolina received, and for a time adopted, the most remarkable constitution ever submitted to any people in any age of the world. The whole affair was an insult to humanity, and in its fundamental elements bore the palpable evidences of the cruel conclusions of an exclusive philosophy. "No elective franchise could be conferred upon a freehold of less than fifty acres," while all executive power was vested in the proprietors themselves. Seven courts were controlled by forty-two counsellors, twenty-eight of whom held their places through the gracious favor of the proprietary and "the nobility." Trial by jury was concluded by the opinions of the majority.

"The instinct of aristocracy dreads the moral power of a
proprietary yeomanry; the perpetual degradation of the
cultivators of the soil was enacted. The leet-men, or
tenants, holding ten acres of land at a fixed rent, were not
only destitute of political franchises, but were adscripts
to the soil, 'under the jurisdiction of their lord, without
appeal;' and it was added, 'all the children of leet-men
shall be leet-men, and so to all generations.'"[497]

The men who formed the rank and file of the yeomanry of the colony of North Carolina were ill prepared for a government launched upon the immense scale of the Locke Constitution. The hopes and fears, the feuds and debates, the vexatious and insoluble problems, of the political science of government which had clouded the sky of the most astute and ambitous statesmen of Europe, were dumped into this remarkable instrument. The distance between the people and the nobility was sought to be made illimitable, and the right to govern was based upon permanent property conditions. Hereditary wealth was to go arm in arm with political power.

The constitution was signed on the 21st of July, 1669, and William Sayle was commissioned as governor. The legislative career of the Province began in the fall of the same year; and history must record that it was one of the most remarkable and startling North America ever witnessed. The portions of the constitution which refer to the institution of slavery are as follows:--

"97th. But since the natives of that place, who will be
concerned in our plantation, are utterly strangers to
Christianity, whose idolatry, ignorance or mistake, gives us
no right to expel or use them ill; and those who remove from
other parts to plant there, will unavoidably be of different
opinions, concerning matters of religion, the liberty
whereof they will expect to have allowed them, and it will
not be reasonable for us on this account to keep them out;
that civil peace may be obtained amidst diversity of
opinions, and our agreement and compact with all men, may be
duly and faithfully observed; the violation whereof, upon
what pretence soever, cannot be without great offence to
Almighty God, and great scandal to the true religion which
we profess; and also that Jews, Heathens and other
dissenters from the purity of the Christian religion, may
not be scared and kept at a distance from it, but by having
an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the truth and
reasonableness of its doctrines, and the peaceableness and
inoffensiveness of its professors, may by good usage and
persuasion, and all those convincing methods of gentleness
and meekness, suitable to the rules and design of the
gospel, be won over to embrace, and unfeignedly receive the
truth; therefore any seven or more persons agreeing in any
religion, shall constitute a church or profession, to which
they shall give some name, to distinguish it from others....

"101st. No person above seventeen years of age, shall have
any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any
place of profit or honor, who is not a member of some church
or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but
one religious record, at once....

"107th. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls
of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's
civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well
as others, to enter themselves and be of what church or
profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as
fully members as any freemen. But yet no slave shall hereby
be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over
him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he
was in before....

"110th. Every freeman of Carolina, shall have absolute
power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion
or religion soever."[498]

Though the Locke Constitution was adopted by the proprietaries, March 1, 1669, it may be doubted whether it ever had the force of law, as it was never ratified by the local Legislature. Article one hundred and ten, granting absolute power and authority to a master over his Negro slave, is without a parallel in the legislation of the colonies. And while the slave might enter the Christian Church, and his humanity thereby be recognized, it was strangely inconsistent to place his life at the disposal of brutal masters, who "neither feared God nor regarded man."

The Negro slaves in North Carolina occupied the paradoxical position of being eligible to membership in the Christian Church, and the absolute property of their white brothers. In the second draught of the constitution, signed in March, 1670, against the eloquent protest of John Locke, the section on religion was amended so as, while tolerating every religious creed, to declare "the Church Of England" the only true Orthodox Church, and the national religion of the Province. This, in the face of the fact that the great majority of all the Christians who flocked to the New World were dissenters, separatists, and nonconformists, can only be explained in the light of the burning zeal of the Church of England to out-Herod Herod,--to carry the Negroes into the communion of the State church for political purposes. It was the most sordid motive that impelled the churchmen to open the church to the slave. His membership did not change his condition, nor secure him immunity from the barbarous treatment the institution of slavery bestowed upon its helpless victims.

In the eyes of the law the Negro, being _absolute property_, had no rights, except those temporarily delegated by the master; and he acted in the relation of an agent. Negro slaves were not allowed "to raise horses, cattle or hogs;" and if any stock were found in their possession six months after the passage of the Act of 1741, they were to be seized by the sheriff of the county, and sold by the church-wardens of the parish. The profits arising from such sales went, one half to the parish, the other half to the informer.[499] A slave was not suffered to go off of the plantation where he was appointed to live, without a pass signed by his master or the overseer. There was an exception made in the case of Negroes wearing liveries. Negro slaves were not allowed the use of fire-arms or other weapons, except they were armed with a certificate from their master granting the coveted permission. If they hunted with arms, not having a certificate, any Christian could apprehend them, seize the weapons, deliver the slave to the first justice of the peace; who was authorized to administer, without ceremony, twenty lashes upon his or her bare hack, and send him or her home. The master had to pay the cost of arrest and punishment. The one exception to this law was, that one Negro on each plantation or in each district could carry a gun to shoot game for his master and protect stock, etc.; but his certificate was to be in his possession all the time. If a Negro went from the plantation on which he resided, to another plantation or place, he was required by statute to travel in the most generally frequented road. If caught in another road, not much travelled, except in the company of a white man, it was lawful for the man who owned the land through which he was passing to seize him, and administer not more than forty lashes. If Negroes visited each other in the night season,--the only time they could visit,--the ones who were found on another plantation than their master's were punished with lashes on their naked back, not exceeding forty; while the Negroes who had furnished the entertainment received twenty lashes for their hospitality. In case any slave, who had not been properly fed and clothed by his master, was convicted of stealing cattle, hogs, or corn from another man, an action of trespass could be maintained against the master in the general or county court, and damages recovered.[500]

Here, as in the other colonies, the greatest enemy of the colonists was an accusing conscience. The people started at every breath of rumor, and always imagined their slaves conspiring to cut their throats. There was nothing in the observed character of the slaves to justify the wide-spread consternation that filled the public mind. Nor was there any occasion to warrant the passage of the Act of 1741, respecting conspiracies among slaves. It is a remarkable document, and is produced here.

"XLVII. _And be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid_, That if any number of negroes or other slaves,
that is to say, three, or more, shall, at any time
hereafter, consult, advise or conspire to rebel or make
insurrection, or shall plot or conspire the murder of any
person or persons whatsoever, every such consulting,
plotting or conspiring, shall be adjudged and deemed felony;
and the slave or slaves convicted thereof, in manner herein
after directed, shall suffer death.

"XLVIII. _And be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid_,'That every slave committing such offence, or any
other crime or misdemeanor, shall forthwith be committed by
any justice of the peace, to the common jail of the county
within which the said offence shall be committed, there to
be safely kept; and that the sheriff of such county, upon
such commitment, shall forthwith certify the same to any
Justice in the commission for the said court for the time
being, resident in the county, who is thereupon required and
directed to issue a summons for two or more Justices of the
said court, and four freeholders, such as shall have slaves
in the said county, which said three Justices and four
freeholders, owners of slaves, are hereby impowered and
required upon oath, to try all manner of crimes and
offences, that shall be committed by any slave or slaves, at
the court house of the county, and to take for evidence, the
confession of the offender, the oath of one or more credible
witnesses, or such testimony of negroes, mulattoes or
Indians, bond or free, with pregnant circumstances, as to
them shall seem convincing, without the solemnity of a jury;
and the offender being then found guilty, to pass such
judgment upon such offender, according to their discretion,
as the nature of the crime or offence shall require; and on
such judgment, to award execution.

"XLIX. _Provided always, and be it enacted_, That it shall
and may be lawful for each and every Justice, being in the
commission of the peace for the county where any slave or
slaves shall be tried, by virtue of this act, (who is owner
of slaves) to sit upon such trial, and act as a member of
such court though he or they be not summoned thereto;
anything herein before contained to the contrary, in any
wise, notwithstanding.

"L. And to the end such negro, mulatto or Indian, bond or
free, not being christians, as shall hereafter be produced
as an evidence on the trial of any slave or slaves, for
capital or other crimes, may be under the greater obligation
to declare the truth; _Be it further enacted_, There where
any such negro, mulatto or Indian, bond or free, shall, upon
due proof made, or pregnant circumstances, appearing before
any county court within this government, be found to have
given a false testimony, every such offender shall, without
further trial, be ordered, by the said court, to have one
ear nailed to the pillory, and there stand for the space of
one hour, and 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 moreover, to order every
such offender thirty-nine lashes, well laid on, on his or
her bare back, at the common whipping post.

"LI. _And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_,
That at every such trial of slaves committing capital or
other offences, the first person in commission sitting on
such trial, shall, before the examination of every negro,
mulatto or Indian, not being a christian, charge such to
declare the truth.

"LII. _Provided always, and it is hereby intended_, That the
master, owner or overseer of any slave, to be arraigned and
tried by virtue of this act, may appear at the trial, and
make what just defence he can for such slave or slave; so
that such defence do not relate to any formality in the
proceeding on the trial."[501]

The manner of conducting the trials of Negroes charged with felony or misdemeanor was rather peculiar. Upon one or more white persons' testimony, or the evidence of Negroes and Indians, bond or free, the unfortunate defendant, "without the solemnity of a jury," before three justices and four freeholders, could be hurried through a trial, convicted, sentenced to die a dreadful death, and then be executed without the officiating presence of a minister of the gospel.

The unprecedented discretion allowed to masters in the government led to the most tragic results. Men were not only reckless of the lives of their own slaves, but violent toward those belonging to others. If a Negro showed the least independence in conversation with a white man, he could be murdered in cold blood; and it was only a case of a contumacious slave getting his dues. But men became so prodigal in the exercise of this authority that the public became alarmed, and the Legislature called a halt on the master-class. At first the Legislature paid for the slaves who were destroyed by the consuming wrath of ill-natured whites, but finally allowed an action to lie against the persons who killed a slave. This had a tendency to reduce the number of murdered slaves; but the fateful clause in the Locke Constitution had educated a voracious appetite for blood, and the extremest cruel treatment continued without abatement.

The free Negro population was very small in this colony. The following act on manumission differs so widely from the law on this point in the other colonies, that it is given as an illustration of the severe character of the legislation of North Carolina against the emancipation of Negroes.

"LVI. _And be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, _That no Negro or mulatto slaves shall be set
free, upon any pretence whatsoever, except for meritorious
services, to be adjudged and allowed of by the county court,
and Licence thereupon first had and obtained: and that where
any slave shall be set free by his or her master or owner,
otherwise than is herein before directed, it shall and may
be lawful for the church-wardens of the parish wherein such
negro, mulatto or Indian, shall be found, at the expiration
of six months, next alter his or her being set free, and
they are hereby authorized and required, to take up and sell
the said negro, mulatto or Indian, as a slave, at the next
court to be held for the said county, at public vendue: and
the monies arising by such sale, shall be applied to the use
of the parish, by the vestry thereof: and if any negro,
mulatto or Indian slave, set free otherwise than is herein
directed, shall depart this province, within six months next
after his or her freedom, and shall afterwards return into
this government, it shall and may be lawful for the
churchwardens of the parish where such negro or mulatto
shall be found, at the expiration of one month, next after
his or her return into this government to take up such negro
or mulatto, and sell him or them, as slaves, at the next
court to be held for the county, at public vendue; and the
monies arising thereby, to be applied, by the vestry, to the
use of the parish, as aforesaid."[502]

The free Negroes were badly treated. They were not allowed any communion with the slaves. A free Negro man was not allowed to marry a white woman, nor even a Negro slave woman without the consent of her master. If he formed an alliance with a white woman, her offspring were bound out, or sold by the church-wardens, until they obtained their majority.[503] If the white woman were an indentured servant, she was constrained to serve an additional year. If she were a free woman, she was sold for two years by the church-wardens. Free Negroes were greatly despised and shunned by both slaves and white people.

As a conspicuous proof of the glaring hypocrisy of the "nobility," who, in the constitution, threw open the door of the Church to the Negro, it should be said, that, during the period from the founding of the Province down to the colonial war, no attempt was ever made, through the ecclesiastical establishment, to dissipate the dark clouds of ignorance that enveloped the Negro's mind. They were left in a state of ignorance and crime. The gravest social evils were winked at by masters, whose lecherous examples were the occasion for the most grievous offending of the slaves. The Mulattoes and other free Negroes were taxed. They had no place in the militia, nor could they claim the meanest rights of the humblest "leetman."

FOOTNOTES:

[497] Bancroft, vol. ii., 5th ed. p. 148.

[498] Statutes of S.C., vol. i. pp. 53-55.

[499] Public Acts of N.C., vol. i. p. 64.

[500] This is an instance of humanity in the North-Carolina code worthy of special note. It stands as the only instance of justice toward the over-worked and under-fed slaves of the colony.

[501] Public Acts of N.C., p.65.

[502] Public Acts of N.C., p. 66.

[503] The Act of 1741 says, "until 31 years of age."