đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 2 required plantation owners to allot land suited to growing provisions, allow twenty-eight working days between May and January for cultivation, and provide food, clothing, bedding, and...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 3 allowed an enslaved person’s complaint—or information from another person—to trigger a justice’s inquiry into food, clothing, housing, and treatment. Justices could inspect an estate and...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 4 urged owners and their agents to instruct enslaved people in Christianity and required parish clergy to baptize adults deemed ready and infants within six months of birth. Clergy were also to...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 5 allowed two enslaved people belonging to the same owner to marry through an authorized clergyman or priest, but required written permission from that owner. Clergy were also to judge...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 6 required each plantation to maintain a hospital in a suitable, healthy location for enslaved people who were sick, injured, or infirm. An “hospital-book” was to record names, admission and...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 7 prohibited compelling most enslaved plantation workers to leave home before daybreak, work through breakfast or dinner, or continue after sunset. It allowed an exception for production...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 8 gave a woman with five living children attached to a plantation fifty-two days during the year to cultivate provision grounds. Its stated purpose was to encourage the increase and...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 9 forbade owners from turning away enslaved people considered unable to work because of illness, age, or infirmity. Owners had to keep and support them; magistrates could investigate neglect...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 10 required a free person to be present when punishment exceeded fifteen lashes and capped punishment at twenty-five lashes for an offense in a day. It restricted repeated flogging before...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 13 allowed prosecution for cruel wounding, mutilation, or confinement without support. Where the enslaver was convicted, a court could order the person sold to another buyer or declare them...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 14 permitted an enslaved person alleged to have been wantonly punished or confined to testify in the trial of the person accused of that abuse. In that specific setting the witness did not need...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 15 authorized justices to investigate reports that an enslaved person had been improperly punished or confined, and to arrange an allowance during an inquiry. But if officials judged the...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 16 defined an enslaved person absent from an owner or employer for forty-eight hours on working days, without a ticket or permit, as a runaway. The definition converted unlicensed mobility into...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 19 required the Provost Marshal to keep captured runaways in custody, post their names at the courthouse, and advertise their names and owners—or physical descriptions if owners were unknown—in...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 20 directed magistrates to investigate when someone jailed as a runaway claimed to be free. If the justices found the claim credible, they had to release the person; if not, they could remand...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 24 prescribed punishment for an enslaved person who remained away for more than six months: hard labor or transportation for life, depending on magistrates’ judgment. For shorter absences, it...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 25 allowed justices to issue warrants to search houses occupied by enslaved people for fugitives or people suspected of sheltering them. Searches could occur by day or night after notice to the...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 28 prohibited enslaved people from beating drums or using other loud instruments for diversion after ten at night, while penalizing owners who knowingly permitted it. Clause 33 separately...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 32 authorized free people to apprehend enslaved people found in St George’s streets between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. unless they were attending an owner or held written permission. Those detained...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 35 criminalized practices officials labeled obeah, including healing or ritual work and possession of listed materials. It grouped spiritual practices with grave threats, allowed severe...
đź“… 26 April 1825
Clause 37 subjected enslaved defendants accused of rebellion, murder, burglary, robbery, arson, and several other serious offenses to the Supreme Court’s criminal process. The court was to assign...
