The Slave Codes. Alabama 1833

[trof]

Just saw "Lincoln" (Highly recommend it.) which led me do do a little research.

I was born (1941) and raised in Alabama.
We have come along way since then.
We still have a way to go, but trust me, we're working on it.
Every day.

But take a look at this.
I had no idea.

Some Slavery Codes made teaching Negroe, Mulatto, Indian and indentured slaves illegal.[2]

Alabama, 1833, section 31 - "Any person or persons who attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars."
(This was a fortune in 1833.)
Alabama, 1833, section 32 - "Any free person of color who shall write for any slave a pass or free paper, on conviction thereof, shall receive for every such offense, thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, and leave the state of Alabama within thirty days thereafter..."
Alabama, 1833, section 33 - "Any slave who shall write for any other slave, any pass or free-paper, upon conviction, shall receive, on his or her back, one hundred lashes for the first offence, and seven hundred lashes for every offence thereafter..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_codes

[BlueJazz]

1. Geez....I just feel numb.

[Callmecrazy]

2. one hundred lashes for the first offense

is a death sentence. Never mind the second offense.

[Selatius]

5. In days where people didn't understand bacterial infections, yes it was a death sentence.

Unless the wounds were doused with strong whiskey repeatedly and had the bandages changed repeatedly, it would have gotten infected.

[Blue_Tires]

6. +1

19th century "medical science" was anything but...

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Wait till you find the post Reconstruction period Jim Crow laws!

Wonder how many racial laws are sitting in the giant tome of Alabama laws, having never been actually repealed?

Every year or so a news item pops up that some state found the time to bowse its codes and "officially" repeal some archaic laws that had never been removed from the books.

[former9thward]

4. New England Slave Codes.

Connecticut An Act punishing Negro and mulatto servants or slaves who disturb
the peace or threaten harm to any white persons." And whereas Negro and mulatto
servants or slaves are become numerous in some parts of this Colony and are very apt
to be turbulent, and often quarrelling with white people to the great disturbance of the
peace: It is therefore ordered. That if any Negro or mulatto servant or slave disturb the
peace, or shall offer to strike any white person, and be thereof convicted, such Negro or
mulatto servant or slave shall be punished by whipping, at the discretion of the courts,
assistant, or justice of the peace that shall have cognizance thereof, not exceeding thirty
stripes for one offense." (Public Records, 1706-16, pp. 52-53)

Just one example of many.

http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/stowedocuments/African_American_Slavery_in_New_England.pdf