AN ACT, TO ALTER AND AMEND THE SLAVE LAWS OF THIS ISLAND. I. HEREAS, it is expedient that the laws now in force, Preamble. relating to slaves, should be revised and consolidated, and other provisions be enacted to promote their religious and moral instruction, and by means whereof their general comfort and happiness may be increased as far as is consistent with due order and subordination and the well-being of this colony: May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; Be it therefore enacted, by the Governor, Council, and Assembly, of this your Majesty's island of Jamaica, That from and after the commencement of this act, an act entitled "An act for the subsistence, clothing, and the better regulation and government of slaves; for enlarging the powers of the council of protection; for preventing the improper transfer of slaves; and for other purposes;" passed the nineteenth day of December, in the fifty-seventh year of the reign of his late Majesty King Repeal of consolidated slave law (57 Geo. 3, cap. 25.) George the third; also an act, entitled "An act to amend the Of 2 Geo. 4. chap. 16. slave act, by altering the mode of carrying into execution the sentence of death on slaves,” passed the fourth day of December, in the second year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the fourth; also an act, entitled "An act to take Of 4 Geo. 4. chap. 15. away clergy from offenders in rape on slaves," passed the eleventh day of December, in the fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the fourth; also an act, entitled 66 An act for removing impediments to the manumission Of 5 Geo. 4. chap. 21. of slaves, by owners having only a limitted interest," passed the eighteenth day of December, in the fifth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the fourth; also an act, Repeal of Geo. 4. entitled " An act to prevent levies on slaves on Saturday, chap. 22. passed the eighteenth day of December, in the fifth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the fourth;" and Of & Geo. 4. chap. 19. also an act, entitled "An act to enable slaves to receive bequests of money or other personal estate," passed the twentyfirst day of December, in the sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the fourth, shall be and stand repealed, and the same are hereby repealed accordingly. (1) New clause. Declaratory that 25 Geo. 3, cap. 8, is not epealed. Slaves to be instructed in religion, and bap1:sed without fee orie ward. Amendment. New clause. Mariages of slaves to be solemnised without ice. II. Whereas, doubts may be entertained, whether the act of 25 George Third, cap. 8, has been repealed by any act or acts heretofore passed, in order to put an end to such doubts, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That nothing in any act heretofore passed, or nothing in this act contained, shall repeal the said mentioned act, but that the same shall be in as full force and virtue as if the said several acts had never been made. (2) III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all owners, proprietors, and possessors, or in their absence the managers or overseers of slaves, shall, as much as in them lies, endeavour the instruction of their slaves in the principles of the Christian religion, whereby to facilitate their conversion, and shall do their utmost endeavours to fit them for baptism, and as soon as conveniently can be, cause to be baptised all such as they can make sensible of a duty to God and the Christian faith, which ceremony the clergyman of the respective parishes are to perform, when required, without fee or reward. (3) IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful for any slave or slaves, who has or have been baptised, who may be desirous of entering into the holy state of matrimony, to apply to any clergyman of the established church to solemnise such marriage, who is hereby required to perform the same without any fee or reward, if such clergyman shall, upon examination of such slaves, consider them to have a proper and adequate knowledge of the nature and obligation of such a contract: Provided always, That such slave shall produce to the clergyman a e's permission shall permission in writing from his owner or from the legal reprecing produced. -sentative of his owner for that purpose. (4) Proviso, that the own * New clanse. V. And whereas, by the ninth section of the eighth George Slaves to be sold in fa- the second, chapter fifth, it is enacted, "that whenever heremilies, When so levied on. Proviso, that levies may be inade on individual slaves, al excessive levies not au:thorised hereby. New clause. after any slave or slaves, taken on any writ of venditioni, shall be exposed to sale, the provost-marshal, or his deputies respectively, shall sell all such slaves singly, unless in cases of families, in which case, and no other, the said provost-marshal, or any of his deputies, may set up to sale such family or families, consisting of a man and his wife, his or their children:" And whereas, it seems necessary further to enforce this provision: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in all cases where a levy shall be made by any deputy-marshal or collecting-constable of a family or families, each family shall be sold together and in one lot: Provided always, That nothing in this act contained shall be understood to interfere with levies on individual slaves, nor be construed to authorise excessive levies. (5) VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Sunday markets after That no white person or persons of free condition, shall expose on a Sunday, after the hour of eleven o'clock in the forepson, any good. or provisions for sale in any market or in any il A. M. abolished. shop or other places, under a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every offence, to be recovered in a summary manner, before any two magistrates; and if any slave do commit such offence, the goods so exposed to be forfeited, by order of any justice of the peace, for the benefit of the poor of the parish where such offence is committed: Provided, That nothing herein shall extend to prevent the keeping open any druggistshop, tavern, or lodging-house, or the sale of fresh meat and fresh fish, or milk, on Sunday; such sale, however, not to take place in any town or place during the hours appointed for the celebration of divine service therein: Provided always, That sufficient notice be given in the market that the hour for closing it has arrived. (6) VII. Whereas, it is expedient to render the sabbath as much as possible a day of rest and for religious worship: And whereas, it would be right and proper that slaves should be protected on some other day in the week besides Sunday from being taken or levied upon for debt, under any process issuing out of any of the courts of justice in this island, or by collecting constables for taxes: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall not be lawful to make any levy upon any negro or other slave on Saturday, and that they shall be exempt from all such process, and also from levies by collecting constables for taxes on that day the same as on Sunday. (7) Proviso, except drugs Levies on Saturdays prohibited. VIII. And be it further enacted by the authority afosesaid, Slaves to be allowed That from and after the commencement of this Act, the slaves 25 days in the year, belonging to or employed on every plantation or settlement exclusive of Sundays. shall, over and above the holidays hereinafter to be mentioned, be allowed one day in every fortnight to cultivate their own provision grounds, exclusive of Sundays, except during the time of crop, under the penalty of twenty pounds, to be recovered against the overseer or person having the care of such slaves; provided always, that the number of days so allowed to the slaves for the cultivation of their grounds, shall be at least twenty six in the year. (8) Persons not to employ the slaves of others without permission. IX. And whereas much mischief is occasioned by persons employing the slaves of others; Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the [passing] of this Act, no person or persons whomsoever shall employ the slave or slaves of others for any reward or hire to be paid to them on the Sunday or any other day allowed such slave by law, without the consent in writing of such owner or owners, or overseers, first had and obtained, under a penalty not exceeding five pounds for each negro so hired or employed; such penalty to be recovered in a summary manner by warrant under the hands and seals of two magistrates of the parish in which the Penalty imposed. property is situated where the offence shall have been committed; and in case of nonpayment of such penalty, to commit the offender or offenders to the common gaol of the county in which such offence shall have been committed, for a space not exceeding twenty days, or until such penalty shall be paid; and such penalty shall be for the benefit of the party, proprietor, or possessor of such slave complaining, in case such offence shall be proved by a disinterested person; and in case such offence shall be proved by the owner, proprietor, or possessor of such slave, such penalty shall be for the benefit of the poor of the parish in which the same offence shall be com mitted. (9) No labour to be done on plantations by slaves on Sundays. Mills not to be worked between Sp.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Monday, under penalty of £20. Negro grounds to be inspected. Where not sufficient negro grounds, each regro to receive 3s. 4d. per week, under penalty of £50. Clothing to be provided each slave, under penalty of £5. Amendment. Master, overseer, & under penalty of £100 to give in to vestry nature and quality of clothing; that he has inspected negro grounds, where any; and that each slave is sufficiently provided with ground provisions. Or such ample provision as before direct ed. Council amendment. Where slaves of per X. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That during the crop, not only shall the slaves, as heretofore be exempted from the labour of the estate or plantation on Sundays, but that no mills shall be put about or worked between the hours of seven o'clock on Saturday night and five o'clock on Monday morning, under the penalty of twenty pounds, to be recovered against the overseer or other person having the charge of such slaves. (10) son not complying with 12 and 13 clauses are Jess than 40, a penalty of £50 to be recovered summarily. XI. And be it enacted by the authority oforesaid, That every master, owner, or possessor, of any slave or slaves,, his or her overseer or chief manager, shall, under the penalty of ten pounds, for each neglect, cause the condition of the negro grounds to be inspected once in every month at least, in order to see that the same are cultivated and kept up in a proper manner, of which oath shall be made, as in this act is hereafter directed. And whereas it may happen, that on some plantations, penns, settlements, and towns, in this island, there may not be lands proper for the cultivation of provisions, or where by reason of long continuance of dry weather, the negro grounds may be rendered unproductive, then, and in that case, the masters, owners, or possessors, do by some other ways and means, make good and ample provision for all such slaves as they shall be possessed of, equal to the value of three shillings and four-pence currency, per week, for each slave, in order that they may be properly supported and maintained, under the penalty of fifty pounds. (11) XII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every master, owner, or possessor, of slaves, shall once in every year, provide and give to each slave they shall be possessed of proper and sufficient clothing, to be approved of by the justices and vestry of the parish, where such master, owner, or possessor, of such slave shall reside, under the penalty of five pounds for each slave for whom such clothing shall not be provided, to be recovered in a summary manner before three justices of the peace. (12) XIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every master, owner, proprietor, or possessor of slaves, his or her overseer or chief manager, at their giving in an account of their slaves and stock to the justices and vestry, on the twenty-eighth day of March in every year, or at the vestry which shall be held next after that day, shall, under the penalty of one hundred pads for every neglect, give in an account on oath, of the nature and quantity of the clothing actually served to each slave on such plantation, penu, or other settlement, for the approbation of the justices and vestry, as aforesaid; and shall likewise at the same time, declare on oath, that he has inspected, or cause to be inspected, the negio grounds (where such negro grounds are allotted) of such plantation, peun, or settlement, according to the directions of this act, and that every negro on the property is sufficiently previded with grounds, or where there are no negro grounds, such ample provision as herein before directed. (13) XIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That when the number of slaves belonging to any master, owner, or possessor, shall not exceed forty, and such master, owner, or possessor, shall not comply with the enactments contained in the two foregoing clauses of this act, the justices and vestry of the parish where such master, owner, or possessor of |