What were slave codes? Exactly what they sound like. Specific laws that gave white masters nearly total control over the lives of slaves, permitting owners to use such corporal punishments as whipping, branding, maiming, and torture.

Slave codes in the early United States varied slightly from colony to colony, but most all of them mandated that slavery was for life and that all descendants of slaves would be slaves.  Other codes prohibited slaves from voting, owning property, testifying in court against whites, gathering in large numbers, traveling without permission, or marrying whites.    Some codes, while not specifically permitting outright murder, actually allowed white masters to kill a slave without fear of punishment.   Below are a few of the various Slave Codes enacted by Southern states before the Civil War.

Slave codes ended with the Civil but were replaced by other discriminatory laws known as "Black Codes” during Reconstruction (1865-77)

 

 ALABAMA

·      Anyone who “maliciously” dismembers or kills a slave will (if found guilty) suffer the same punishment as if he had dismembered or killed a white person, the one exception being if the slave was engaged in a rebellion.

 ·      If a slave is found to have conspired in any way to rebel or murder another person, upon being found guilty of such felony, that slave will be put to death.

 ·      If a slave commits a felony but is a first-time offender, instead of being put to death, he or she will be branded on the face or breast in open court and subjected to whatever other kind of bodily punishment the court sees fit. Second-time offenders (known by their brandings) will be put to death.

GEORGIA

The Georgia State Law allowed that when a slave or free black committed assault or maiming of a free white person, burglary, arson, attempted poison of a white person, be punished with death. 

  

MISSISSIPPI

An 1807 Mississippi law stipulated that fugitive slaves “be burned in the hand by the sheriff in open court,” and any slave who presented false testimony should receive thirty-nine lashes and have an ear nailed to a pillory for an hour and then cut off.   The Mississippi slave code of 1857 contained twenty-five offenses that could result in the death penalty.

 

SOUTH CAROLINA

The 1712 South Carolina slave code stated: "Negroes and other slaves brought unto the people of this Province for that purpose, are of barbarous, wild, savage natures, and such as renders them wholly unqualified to be governed by the laws, customs, and practices of this Province."

The slave code included provisions such as:

·       Slaves were forbidden to leave the owner's property unless they were accompanied by a white person or had permission. If a slave leaves the owner's property without permission, "every white person" is required to chastise such slaves.

·       Any slave attempting to run away and leave the colony (later the state) receives the death penalty.

·       Any slave who evades capture for 20 days or more is to be publicly whipped for the first offense, branded with the letter R on the right cheek for the second offense, and lose one ear if absent for 30 days for the third offense, and castrated for the fourth offense.

·       Owners refusing to abide by the slave code are fined and forfeit ownership of their slaves.

·       Slave homes are to be searched every two weeks for weapons or stolen goods. Punishment for violations escalates to include loss of ear, branding, and nose-slitting, and, for the fourth offense, death.

·       No slave is allowed to work for pay; plant corn, peas or rice; keep hogs, cattle, or horses; own or operate a boat; buy or sell; or to wear clothes finer than 'Negro cloth.'

The South Carolina slave code was revised in 1739 with the following amendments to penalize whites who aided a slave in most any way:

·       No slave is to be taught to write, to work on Sunday, or to work more than 15 hours per day in summer, and 14 hours in winter.

·       Willful killing of a slave exacts a fine of £700, "passion"-killing £350.

·       The fine for concealing runaway slaves is $1,000 and a prison sentence of up to one year.

·       A fine of $100 and six months in prison are imposed for employing any black or slave as a clerk.

·       A fine of $100 and six months in prison are imposed on anyone selling or giving alcoholic beverages to slaves.

·       A fine of $100 and six months in prison are imposed for teaching a slave to read and write, and death is the penalty for circulating incendiary literature.

·       Freeing a slave is forbidden, except by deed, and after 1820,  without permission of the legislature (Georgia required legislative approval after 1801).

TEXAS

In Texas, a slave had no property rights and no legal rights of marriage and family.

VIRGINIA

In 1705, Virginia passed a last that it was not a crime if a white master killed a black slave while correcting him.    The law went on to say it was lawful for any person…to kill and destroy a slave by such ways and means as he thought fit, with no punishment. 

 ·      An excerpt reads:  "… All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resists his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened."

It decreed that slaves found guilty of murder or rape would be hanged, that for robbing or any other major offence, the slave would receive sixty lashes and be placed in stocks, where his or her ears would be cut off, and that for minor offences, such as associating with whites, slaves would be whipped, branded, or maimed.