LAWS OF MARYLAND.—1723. 65
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, by the authority, advice, and
consent aforesaid. That any master or owner of any negro or
other slaves, that shall suffer any such slaves to them belong-
ing, to keep any horses or mares, or to raise any cattle or hogs,
as the proper right of such slaves, the master or owner of such
slaves shall forfeit and pay five hundred pounds of tobacco, to
be recovered and applied as aforesaid, and also all such horses
and mares, cattle and hogs, shall likewise be forfeited, one-half
to the informer, the other half to be applied as aforesaid. |
Slaves not
to keep
horses, &c. |
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
by and with the advice and consent aforesaid. That, whereas
many negroes and other slaves absent themselves from their
master's service, and run out into the woods, and there remain,
killing and destroying of hogs and cattle belonging unto the
people of this province, if that such negro or negroes, or other
slaves so out-lying as aforesaid, shall refuse to surrender them-
selves, making resistance against such persons as pursue to
apprehend and take them up, being thereunto legally empow-
ered, it shall be lawful to and for such pursuers, upon such
resistance made, to shoot, kill, and destroy such negro or
negroes, or other slave as aforesaid.
By 1751, ch. 14, sec. 9, persons so killing any slave are indemnified from
prosecution; the slave so killed is to be valued, and the value paid to the
owner; and by 1753, ch. 26, persons so killing any slave shall undergo a
trial, but on pleading the general issue, and acquittal thereon, the public
shall pay the costs of the prosecution.
CHAPTER 16.
AN ACT to punish Blasphemers, Swearers, Drunkards, and Sabbath-break-
ers, and for repealing the laws heretofore made for the punishing such
offenders. |
Resisting,
they may be
shot, &c. |
Be it enacted by the right honourable the Lord Proprietor, by
and with the advice and consent of his lordship's Governor, and
the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and the authority of
the same, That if any person shall hereafter, within this pro-
vince, wittingly, maliciously, and advisedly, by writing or speak-
ing, blaspheme or curse God, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ
to be the Son of God, or shall deny the Holy Trinity, the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of the
three Persons, or the unity of the Godhead, or shall utter any
profane words concerning the Holy Trinity, or any the Persons
thereof, and shall be thereof convict by verdict or confession,
shall, for the first offence, be bored through the tongue, and
fined twenty pounds sterling to the lord proprietor, to be
applied to the use of the county where the offence shall be
committed, to be levied on the offender's body, goods and chat-
tels, lands or tenements; and, in case the said fine cannot be
levied, the offender to suffer six months' imprisonment, without
9 |
Blasphe-
mers to be
punished,
&c. |
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