LAWS OF MARYLAND:

1842

peal at the next term of the said court, which shall be held
after the record of the proceedings in said cause shall have
been sent up, and the court is authorized to act upon the
said cause as presented by the entire record, as if the
record had been so sent up entire, on the appeal from the
order of the chancellor, passed on the twenty-eighth day
of February eighteen hundred and twenty live, so as to do
substantial justice in the premises according to the law of
the land.

CHAP. 281.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That if the said Penn shall
not give an appeal bond as usual, then that the said appeal
shall not operate as a supersedeas, but shall be in all other
respects valid and effectual.

Penn to give
appeal bond.

CHAPTER 281.

An act to prohibit the formation and assemblage of Secret
Societies of Negroes.

Passed March
9, 1843.

SECTION I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That from and after the passage of this act, it
shall not be lawful for any negro or mulatto in this state to
become or continue to be a member of any secret society
whatever, whether such society shall hold its meetings in or
without the limits of this state; and every free negro or
mulatto offending against the provisions of this section,
shall be deemed guilty of felony, and upon indictment and
conviction in any county court in this state or in the city
court of Baltimore as the case may be, shall be fined not
less than fifty dollars, and if not paid, be sold for such terra
as the court may adjudge sufficient to realize said fine, one
half to the informer and the other half to the state; and
for the second offence, be sold as a slave for life beyond the
limits of this state, and the proceeds of such sale after pay-
ing one half to the informer shall be paid into the treasury
of the state, and every slave so offending shall upon con-
viction be sold out of the limits of the state, or be pun-
ished by the infliction of thirty-nine lashes upon his or her
or their bare backs at the discretion of the court.

Negroes and
mulattoes pro-
hibited from
belonging to
secret societies.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That if any person or per-
sons shall form or attempt to form any such society or as-
sociation of negroes, or joint society or association of ne-
groes and white persons, or shall induce or attempt to induce
any negro or mulatto to join or enter into or be connected
with such society or association, he, she or they, if white.
31

Penalty for
forming such
society.