Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/57

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Delaware,[3] in 1851, prohibited the immigration of free Negroes from any State except Maryland: moreover, it forbade them to attend camp meetings, except for religious worship under the control of white people, or political gatherings. A law of 1852 provided that no free Negroes should have the right to vote or "to enjoy any other rights of a freeman other than to hold property, or to obtain redress in law and in equity for any injury to his or her person or property."

Missouri,[4] in 1847, forbade the immigration into the State of any free Negro; enacted that no person should keep a school for the instruction of Negroes in reading and writing; forbade any religious meetings of Negroes unless a justice of the peace, constable, or other officer was present; and declared that schools and religious meetings for free Negroes were "unlawful assemblages."

Ohio, which probably had the most notorious "Black Laws" of any free State, "required colored people to give bonds for good behavior as a condition of residence, excluded them from the schools, denied them the rights of testifying in courts of justice when a white man was party on either side, and subjected them to other unjust and degrading disabilities."[5]

Indiana,[6] in 1851, prohibited free Negroes and mulattoes from coming into the State, and fined all persons who employed or encouraged them to remain in the State between ten and five hundred dollars for each offense.[7] The fines were to be devoted to a fund for the colonization of Negroes.[8] A law, which was submitted to a special vote and passed by a majority of ninety thousand, prohibited intermarriage between the races, provided for colonization