132

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

Anne Arundel county deceased, bearing date
the —— day of October, eighteen hundred and
fifty-three, duly executed and recorded in Liber
B. E. G., number one, folio four hundred and
fifty-five, &c., one of the will Record Books of
said county, all the negro slaves of the said tes-
tator were bequeathed to a certain Eliza Ran-
dall, of said city and county, the widow of
said testator, during her natural life, and then
to be free; and whereas, the said testator de-
parted this life in the month of February in the
year eighteen hundred and sixty-one, after the
act of eighteen hundred and sixty, chapter three
hundred and twenty-two, prohibiting the manu-
mission of negro slaves had taken effect ; and
this General Assembly is willing to carry out the
wishes of said testator in exercising a power
which he legally possessed at the date of the
execution of his said last will and testament ;
therefore,

Empowered
to manumit
flares.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly
of Maryland, That the said Eliza Randall, widow
of the said testator and the executrix of and resid-
uary legatee, under the said last will and testa-
ment, be and she is hereby authorized and empow-
ered, by her last will and testament, or by deed or
deeds of manumission, duly executed and recorded
among the records of Anne Arundel county, to
manumit and set free after her death, the said ne-
gro slaves, and any and all issue which they may
have had since the death of the said testator, and
which they may have during the life of the said
Eliza Randall ; any law, usage or custom to the
contrary notwithstanding.

In force.

Sec. 2. This act shall take effect from the day of
its passage.