Historical Organization
Justices of the Peace
Justices of the Peace
Details
Organization Timeline
Jamaica restricts enslaved people’s movement and punishes absence
📅 15 November 1661A Jamaican act made enslaved Africans and servants liable to punishment for leaving a plantation without written permission. It treated ordinary movement as an offense against an owner’s authority and...
Jamaica’s first recorded law solely on governing enslaved Africans
đź“… 2 November 1662The act described enslaved Africans as necessary to plantations and authorized a justice and local inquest to sentence an enslaved person accused of a capital offense. It also prohibited inhabitants...
Grenada establishes a rapid criminal tribunal for enslaved defendants
đź“… 24 October 1789A Grenada law authorized a justice of the peace and four freeholders to try enslaved people accused of serious crimes, with hearings convened rapidly and capital sentences carried out immediately....
A justice must examine captured or surrendered enslaved people
đź“… 7 June 1796Clause II required a captured or surrendered enslaved person to be brought before a justice of the peace for examination as soon as convenient. The justice could examine the person and witnesses,...
Suspicion could lead to jail before trial
📅 7 June 1796Under clause II, a justice could commit an enslaved person to gaol or another secure place if an examination created “just grounds to suspect” guilt or if the person was deemed dangerous and unfit...
A small white jury was selected by ballot
📅 7 June 1796The commander in chief could direct three or more justices to hold a trial, and those justices summoned five “respectable white persons” from the parish or adjoining parishes as jurors. Three were...
False testimony carries extreme penalties
đź“… 7 June 1796Clause IV made an enslaved witness found guilty of knowingly giving false evidence liable to the same punishment as the accused person would have faced, or another punishment the court considered...