Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Black Code of the District of Columbia, in Force September 1st, 1848
If any person shall wittingly or willingly entertain any servants or slaves unlawfully absenting themselves from their master, owner or overseer, or permit or suffer them to be about his or her houses or plantations during the space of one hour or longer, such person shall forfeit and pay at the rate of one hundred pounds of tobacco for every hour such servants or slaves shall be by him or her so entertained or permitted or suffered to be about his or her houses or plantations, to be recovered in a summary way before a single magistrate with costs, if the penalty does not exceed six hundred pounds of tobacco, and if it does exceed that amount, then to be recovered by action of debt, bill of indictment, plaint or information, in the County Court where the offence shall be committed, wherein no essoin, protection, wager of law or above one imparlance shall be allowed, one half to the use of the public school of the county in which such forfeiture shall happen, and the other half to the party grieved, if said party shall prosecute for the same within three months next after the offence committed, otherwise to the informer or him or them who shall sue for the same, provided such suit be commenced within twelve months after such ofi'ence committed; and if the offender is unable to pay or give good security for the penalty, it shall be lawful for the magistrate before whom any conviction for breach of this act shall be had, to punish such offender, by whipping on the bare back with such number of stripes, not exceeding thirty-nine, for any one offence, as to him shall seem meet, and to require security for such offender's good behavior for the next ensuing six months: and if any servant or slave shall wittingly or willingly harbor or entertain any other servants or slaves, unlawqy absent from their masters, owners, or overseers, for the space of one hour or longer, it shall be lawful for any magistrate and he is required, upon complaint to him made, immediately to issue his warrant against such servant or slave so harboring or entertaining, and upon satisfactory proof of such harboring or ente to punish the offenders by whipping with such number of stripes on the bare back as to him shall seem proper, not exceeding thirty-nine for any one offence. Laws of Maryland, 1748 Oh. 19, Sect 2, 3, 4.
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