Gibson/Papenfuse Race and the Law in Maryland Image No: 211 Enlarge and print image (53K) << PREVIOUS NEXT >> |
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Gibson/Papenfuse Race and the Law in Maryland Image No: 211 Enlarge and print image (53K) << PREVIOUS NEXT >> |
129. Nye, supra note 53 at 58-76. 130. Maryland Laws 1835 ch. 325. 131. Maryland Laws 1841 Ch. 272. 132. James M. Wright, The Free Negro in Maryland. 1634-1860 286-91 (1921). 133. Brackett, supra note 1 at 249. James Van Ness suggested that the rise in free blacks in Maryland must be accounted for by immigration from other states, although the census showed only 2% of the free black population came from other states. He argued that free blacks would claim to come from Maryland so that the exclusion law would not be applicable. He noted that the climate and geography of Maryland was similar to the south, that restrictive laws were not as bad as those of states further south, and that the decline in slavery in Baltimore job market came from a perception that hired labor was cheaper than slave labor if productivity were considered. Van Ness, supra note 2. 134. Bland and Woolfolk vs. Negro Beverly Dowling, 9 Gill & John. 14 (1837). 135. Brackett, supra note 1 at 170 citing 8 Gill 314, 3 Md. 119 and 14 Md. 109 and 115. The latter cases, from 1856 and later, interpreted wills made after 1831 that freed slaves "to go to Africa" as creating freedom regardless of whether the freed slave went to Africa. 136. Id. at 241. 137. Id at 247-8. 138. Brackett summarized the committee report as follows: It is highly inexpedient to try to remove all the free blacks. They are indeed an evil in a slave-holding community, but the majority of them are not idle, unproductive and vicious. Their removal would be a greater evil than all the harm ever suffered. In Baltimore they number twenty-five thousand, mostly servants and laborers. Much of our soil could not be tilled without them. Then such an act offeree would violate public sentiment, which is generally just and kindly - it would not be tolerated by the people of the State. Nor should rights of freedom already vested be taken away. On the other hand, the policy outlined in the act of 1831 was wise and proper, but that law - becoming inoperative, and few blacks being willing to leave - had been almost forgotten except by members of the Bar. But certain evils arising from the increase of frree blacks have been almost universally admitted, and are more evident than in 1831. Slaves run away mainly through their influence, or are encouraged by them to insubordination, and tahe thriftless of them set evil examples to slave and free alike. They 209 |