The law grants extra cultivation days to some mothers

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...