Delegates in 1792.51

For every success story, there were dozens of tales of despair. Jefferson's scepticism
about the ability of blacks was reflected many times over in the views of the white society
regarding the free blacks in Maryland. Blacks had received little or no education, had little
property, no training for anything other than menial tasks, and were suspected of a wide variety
of sins from drunkenness and sexual immorality to indolence and theft. The suspicions may have
had their basis in fact, for the slave system had conspired against the institution of marriage,
while poverty and discrimination pressed individuals to escape through the nearest means
available.52 Poor whites also had their share of vices, but were viewed as part of the race which
also maintained the government, controlled the wealth and defined virtue. Although there were
free black property owners53 they were not a sufficiently large and powerful class to offset the
image in white minds that identified the free negro with the characteristics of the slave. The free
black often rented land from his former master or was hired to work. Many farmers employed a
mixture of free and slave labor with little distinction in their treatment.54

E.        The Reaction to Abolition

The laws relating to slavery were codified in 1796. Sections 1-4 of the Act dealt with
restrictions on the importation of slaves. Section 5 excluded all slaves manumitted since 1783
from voting, holding office, or giving evidence against a white person or in a petition for
freedom. Later sections reiterated the law permitting manumission by will and abolishing
servitude for a period of years for free children of forbidden relationships "whereas it is contrary
to the dictates of humanity, and the principles of the Christian religion, to inflict personal
penalties on children for the offence of their parents." But the children of slaves still remained
slaves.

Section 17 of the Act of 1796 fined masters who permitted their slaves "to depart from
their respective habitation or quarter, and remain at large, begging or becoming burthensome to
the respective neighborhoods, or to other persons." Section 18 provided for the punishment of
any free negro or mulatto who sold or gave away his certificate of freedom to enable others to
escape. Section 19 fined persons helping persons to escape from service. Still other provisions
regulated freedom suits, including the assessment of costs to the petitioner unless the court found
there were reasonable grounds to assert freedom.55

The codification did not change the law, but reasserted the policy of the state to preserve
the institution of slavery while permitting voluntary manumission and prohibiting importation of
slaves. Increasing hostility to the Abolition Society was shown as members were suspected of
aiding in the escape of slaves.56 When a new abolition bill was introduced in 1798 by Upton
Bruce, it was hooted down and Bruce was forced to withdraw it.57 The Society itself appears to
have disbanded, and legislative efforts at abolition ceased by the end of the eighteenth century.

The economic arguments against abolition are apparent. Even gradual abolition affected

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