| CHARLES RIDGELY, OF HAMPTON, ESQ. GOVERNOR.
entitled to freedom, then the court shall adjudge them free, and if
said court shall adjudge them to be slaves for life, or for a term of
years, and it shall appear that said slave or slaves shall have been
purchased with intent to remove them from the state of Maryland,
and no bill of sale for the same shall have been taken for such
slave or slaves, or a false or fraudulent bill of sale, then the said
court shall order such slave to be sold for the time such slave may
have to serve, for the benefit of the county, or for the mayor and
city council of Baltimore, if the aforesaid proceedings should be
had in Baltimore city court; but if any slave or slaves, after a
term of years, or upon any contingency, then the said servant or
slave shall become immediately the right and property of the said
person entitled to such reversion or remainder, in the same manner
as if the event or time in which the reversion or remainder was
to accrue had actually occurred; Provided, that the said person,
so
entitled to the reversion or remainder, shall pay the costs of the
proceedings which may have been had in the case, otherwise the
said servant or slave shall be sold for the use of the county, or the
mayor and city council of Baltimore, for the time he or she may
have been bound to serve the person who sold said servant or slave;
Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to
extend
to the case of any citizen removing from the state of Maryland
with his servants and slaves, provided such citizen shall have resided
within the state one year next preceding such removal, or to any
person travelling with his or her servants or slaves in or through
the state not purchased with intent to export the same within the
meaning of this act. |
1817.
CHAP. 112.
Provisos. |
6. AND BE IT ENACTED, That hereafter when
any servant or
slave shall be committed to the gaol of any county in this state, as a
runaway, agreeably to the laws now in force, and the notice required
to be given by law by the sheriff shall have been given, and the
time for their detention expired, and no person or persons shall
have applied for and claimed said suspected runaway, and proved
his, her, or their title to such suspected runaway, as is now required
by law, it shall be the duty of the sheriff forthwith to carry
such slave or slaves before some judge of the county court, or judge
of the orphans court, with his commitment, and such judge is hereby
required to examine and inquire, by such means as he may deem
most advisable, whether such suspected runaway be a slave or not,
and if he shall have reasonable grounds to believe that such suspected
runaway is a slave, he may remand such suspected runaway
to prison, to be confined for such further or additional time as he
may judge right and proper; and if he shall have reason to believe
that such suspected runaway is the slave of any particular person,
he shall cause such notice to be given by the sheriff, to such supposed
owner, as he may think most advisable, but if said judge
shall not have reasonable ground to believe such suspected runaway
to be a slave, he shall forthwith order such suspected runaway to be
released; and if no person shall apply for such suspected runaway,
after he may be so remanded, within the time for which he may be
remanded, and prove his, her or their title as the law now requires,
the said sheriff shall, at the expiration of such time, relieve and
discharge such suspected runaway, and in either case when such
suspected runaway shall be discharged, the expense of keeping |
Runaway slaves
proceedings relative
thereto. |
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