CHAPTER LXIV.

An Act concerning the introduction of Negroes and Mulattoes into this Territory.

§ 1. It shall and may be lawful for any person being the owner or possessor of any negroes or mulattoes of and above the age of fifteen years, and owing service and labor as slaves in any of the states or territories of the United States, or for any citizen of the said states or territories purchasing the same, to bring the said negroes or mulattoes into this territory.

§ 2. The owner or possessor of any negroes or mulattoes, as aforesaid, and bringing the same into this Territory, shall within thirty days after such removal, go with the same before the clerk of the court of Common Pleas of the proper county, and in the presence of the said clerk, the said owner or possessor shall determine and agree to and with his or her negro or mulatto, upon the term of years, which the said negro or mulatto will and shall serve his or her said owner or possessor, and the said clerk is hereby authorized and required to make a record thereof in a book which he shall keep for that purpose.

§ 3. If any negro or mulatto removed into this Territory as aforesaid, shall refuse to serve his or her owner as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for such person, within sixty days thereafter to remove the said negro or mulatto to any place, which by the laws of the United States, or territory, from whence such owner or possessor may or shall be authorized to remove the same.

§ 4. If any person or persons shall neglect or refuse to perform the duty required in the second, or to take advantage of the benefit of the preceding section hereof within the time therein respectively prescribed such person or persons shall forfeit all claim and right whatever, to the service and labor of such negroes or mulattoes.

§ 5. Any person removing into this territory, and being the owner or possessor of any negro or mulatto, as aforesaid under the age of fifteen years, or if any person shall hereafter acquire a property in any negro or mulatto under the age aforesaid, and who shall bring them into this territory; it shall and may be lawful for such person, owner or possessor to hold the said negro or mulatto to service or labor, the male until they arrive at the age of thirty-five, and the females until they arrive at the age of thirty-two years.

§ 6. Any person removing any negro or mulatto into this territory, under the authority of the preceding sections, it shall be incumbent on such person within thirty days thereafter, to register the name and age of such negro or mulatto, with the clerk of the court of Common pleas, for the proper county.

§ 7. If any person shall remove any negro or mulatto from any one county to another county within this Territory, who may or shall be brought into the same under the authority of either the first or fifth sections hereof it shall be incumbent on such person to register the same, and also the name and age of the said negro or mulatto, with the said Clerk of the county, from whence, and to which such negro or mulatto may be removed, within thirty days after such removal.

§ 8. If any person shall neglect, or refuse to perform the duty required by the two preceding sections hereof, such person for such offense, shall be fined in the sum of fifty dollars, to be recovered by indictment or information, and for the use of the proper county.

§ 9. If any person shall neglect or refuse to perform the duty and service herein required, he shall for every such neglect or refusal, be fined in the sum of fifty dollars, to be recovered by information or indictment, and for the use of the county.

§ 10. It shall be the duty of the clerk of the court of Common Pleas aforesaid, when any person shall apply to him to register any negro or mulatto, agreeably to the preceding section, to demand and receive the said applicant's bond, with sufficient security in the penalty of five hundred dollars, payable to the governor or his successor in office, conditioned that the negro or mulatto, negroes or mulattoes, as the case may be, shall not after the expiration of his or her time of service, become a county charge, which bond shall be lodged with the county treasurers respectively, for the use of the said counties: Provided always, That no such bond shall be required or requirable, in case the time of service of such negro or mulatto, shall expire before he or she arrives at the age of forty years; if such negro or mulatto, be at that time capable to support him or herself, by his or her own labor.

§ 11. Any person who shall forcibly take or carry out of this territory, or who shall be aiding or assisting therein any person or persons owing or having owed service or labor, without the consent of such person or persons, previously obtained, before any Judge of the court of Common Pleas of the county, where such person owing, or having owed such service or labor resides, which consent shall be certified by said Judge of the Common Pleas, to the Clerk of the court of Common Pleas, where he resides, at or before the next court, any person so offending, upon conviction thereof, shall forfeit and pay one thousand dollars; one third to the use of the county, and two thirds to the use of the person so taken or carried away, to be recovered by action of debt, or on the case: Provided, That there shall be nothing in this section so construed as to prevent any master or mistress from removing any person owing service or labor, from this territory, as described in the third section of this act.

§ 12. The said Clerk for every register made in manner aforesaid, shall receive seventy-five cents from the applicant therefor.

§ 13. The children born in this territory of a parent of color, owing service or labor by indenture, according to law, shall serve the master or mistress of such parent, the male until the age of thirty, and the female until the age of twenty-eight years.

§ 14. The provisions contained in a law of this territory, respecting apprentices, entitled "An act respecting apprentices," shall be in force, as to such children, in case of the misbehavior of the master or mistress, or for cruelty or ill usage.

Signatories:

JESSE B. THOMAS,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

B. CHAMBERS,

President of the Council.

Approved—September 17th, 1807.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON