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Passed Feb.
11, 1864.
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AN ACT to repeal sections forty-two and forty-
three of Article sixty-six of the Code of Public
General Laws, relating to manumission, and to
enact a substitute therefor, providing for the
manumission of slaves.
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Repealed.
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SECTION 1 . Be it enacted by the General Assembly
of Maryland, That sections forty-two and forty-
three of Article sixty-six of the Code of Public
General Laws, relating to manumission, be and
the same are hereby repealed, and that the follow-
ing sections be enacted as a substitute therefor :
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Additional
sections.
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Sec. 42. That any person or persons possessed
of any'slave or slaves within this State, may by
writing, under his, her or their hand and seal,
evidenced by at least two good and sufficient wit-
nesses, and acknowledged before a Justice of the
Peace of the county where the grantor resides, and
recorded in the office of the clerk of the Circuit
Court for said county within thirty days from the
date of said instrument, or by last will and testa-
ment executed to pass personal property and duly
admitted to probate, grant to such slave or slaves,
his, her or their freedom, to take effect at the date
of said instrument, or at such future time as may
be limited by said instrument, and that a copy of
such record duly attested under the seal of such of-
fice where said deed, or last will and testament,
may be recorded, shall be good and sufficient evi-
dence to prove such freedom; and all manumissions
made or attempted to be made by deed, or last will
and testament, since the enactment of said sections
forty-two and forty-three, prohibiting manumis-
sions, are hereby ratified and made valid, with the
consent of the parties interested, as if said pro-
hibitions had not existed; but that no slave man-
umitted, or hereafter to be manumitted, shall be
entitled to vote at any election, or be capable of
holding any office of profit or trust, or of giving
evidence against any white person.
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