FOOTNOTES
[1] Tennessee belonged to Virginia from 1607 to 1663, to Carolina from 1663 to 1693, and to North Carolina from 1693 to 1790. Garrett, W. R., and Goodpasture, A. V., History of Tennessee, p. 14.
[2] The first settlements in Tennessee were made in 1769 and 1772. Ibid., pp. 49-52.
[3] The settlements of western North Carolina became the State of Franklin in 1785, the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the State of Tennessee in 1796. Ibid., pp. 91, 105, and 127.
[4] Doyle, J. A., The English Colonies in America, I, 331.
[5] Bassett, John Spencer, Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. 14, p. 18.
[6] Ibid., p. 19.
[7] Doyle, I, 389.
[8] Colonial Entry Book, No. lxxxii, p. 129. (Quoted by Doyle, I, 386.)
[9] Bassett, Op. Cit., p. 20.
[10] N. C. Col. Records, II, 17.
[11] Ibid., V, 320.
[12] Ibid., VII, 5391.
[13] Hale, W. J., and Merritt, D. L., History of Tennessee, II, 292.
[14] “A bill of sale from Micajah to Andrew Jackson, Esquire, for a negro woman named Nancy about eighteen or twenty years of age was proven in open court by the oath of David Allison, a subscribing witness, and ordered to be recorded.” Record of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Jonesboro, Tennessee, for November Term, 1788.
[15] Haywood, John, The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, 406.
[16] (He) “was a very prominent negro. He had a garden, and supplied a great many people with vegetables. His oldest daughter married Graham, a barber. She had a big wedding and invited all the prominent white people in town, and they all went. He was a very respectable, upright, humble negro. General Andrew Jackson attended the wedding, and Dr. McNairy danced the reel with the bride.” Hale and Merritt, II, 293.
[17] Ramsey, J. G. M., The Annals of Tennessee, 648.
[18] Hale and Merritt, II, 294.
[19] Iredell, James, Laws of State of North Carolina, p. 85.
[20] Acts of G. A. of N. C., 1729, Ch. 5, Sec. 7.
[21] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 40.
[22] Acts of 1753, Ch. VI, Secs. 2-3.
[23] This oath read: “I, A. B., do swear that I will, as searcher for guns, swords, and other weapons among the slaves of my district, faithfully, and as privately as I can, discharge the trust reposed in me, as the law directs, to the best of my power. So help me God.” Acts of 1753, Ch. VI, Sec. 4.
[24] Acts of 1753, Ch. VI, Sec. 6.
[25] Acts of 1738, Ch. X, Secs. 1-3.
[26] Acts of 1745, Ch. 3, Sec. 3; Acts of 1768, Ch. 13, Sec. 2; Acts of 1784, Ch. 33, Sec. 2.
[27] Acts of 1729, Ch. 5, Sec. 8.
[28] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 43.
[29] Anyone trading with slaves “without the license or consent in writing under the head of his or her or their master or owner ... shall forfeit treble the value of the thing bought, sold, or traded, trucked or borrowed or lent.” Acts of 1715, Ch. 46, Sec. 10.
[30] No slave was “permitted, on any pretense whatever, to raise any horses, cattle or hogs; and all horses, cattle and hogs that, six months from the date thereof, shall belong to any slave, or of any slave’s work in this government, shall be seized and sold by the church wardens of the Parish where such horses, cattle or hogs shall be, and the profit thereof be applied, one-half to the use of the said Parish and the other half to the Informer.” Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 44; see also Acts of 1779, Ch. 5, Sec. 6.
[31] Acts of 1741, Ch. 31, Sec. 2.
[32] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 48.
[33] Ibid., Sec. 51.
[34] Ibid., Sec. 52.
[35] Acts of 1774, Ch. 31, Sec. 2.
[36] Acts of 1741, Sec. 48, Ch. 24.
[37] Ibid., Sec. 51.
[38] Ibid., Sec. 52.
[39] Acts of 1783, Ch. 14, Sec. 2.
[40] It was directed “to take for evidence the confession of the offender, the oath of one or more credible witnesses, or such testimony of negroes, mulattoes or Indians, bond or free, with pregnant circumstances as to them shall seem convincing, without solemnity of jury; and the offender being then found guilty, to pass such judgment upon the offender, according to their discretion, as the nature of the offense may require; and on such judgment to award execution.” Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Secs. 48-52.
[41] Ibid., Sec. 48.
[42] “All negroes, mulattoes, bond or free, to the third generation, and Indian servants and slaves, shall be deemed to be taken as persons incapable in law to be witnesses in any case whatsoever, except against each other.” Acts of 1746, Ch. 2, Sec. 50.
[43] Bassett, Op. Cit., p. 30.
[44] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 50.
[45] The preamble to this act reads: “Whereas the evil and pernicious practice of freeing slaves in this state, ought at this alarming and critical time to be guarded against by every friend and well-wisher to his country.” Acts of 1777, Ch. 6, Sec. 1.
[46] Acts of 1777, Ch. 6, Sec. 2.
[47] “Whereas before the passing of the said act, and since the sixteenth day of April, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-five, divers evil-minded persons, intending to disturb the public peace, did liberate and set free their slaves, notwithstanding the same was expressly contrary to the laws of this state.” Acts of 1779, Ch. 12, Sec. 1.
[48] Acts of 1779, Ch. 12, Sec. 2.
[49] Ibid., Sec. 3.
[50] Acts of 1788, Ch. 20, Sec. 1.
[51] Declaration of Rights of North Carolina, Sec. 6.
[52] Constitution of 1776 of N. C., Secs. 7, 8, and 9.
[53] Acts of 1787, Ch. 6, Sec. 3.
[54] Acts of 1741, Ch. 1, Sec. 13.
[55] Ibid., Sec. 14.
[56] Acts of 1787, Ch. 6, Sec. 2.
[57] Ibid., Sec. 3.
[58] Ibid., Ch. 1, Sec. 1.
[59] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 14.
[60] Acts of 1788, Ch. 7, Secs. 1-2.
[61] Acts of 1777, Ch. 6, Sec. 5.
[62] Brickell, John, Natural History of North Carolina, 272.
[63] Acts of 1715, Ch. 46, Sec. 18.
[64] Ibid., Secs. 6-8.
[65] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Secs. 25-33.
[66] Ibid., Sec. 43.
[67] Ibid., Sec. 46.
[68] Brickell, Op. Cit., 270.
[69] Acts of 1741, Ch. 24, Sec. 36.
[70] Ibid., Sec. 37.
[71] Ibid., Sec. 25.
[72] Earlier historians used the name Frankland (the land of the free), but letters from officials of the state indicate that it was named after Benjamin Franklin. See footnote p. 263, Vol. I, McMaster, John B., History of the United States.
[73] A copy of this constitution is now in the State Archives.
[74] Ramsey, J. G. M., Annals of Tennessee, 327.
[75] American Historical Magazine, I, 63.
[76] Phelan, James, History of Tennessee, 299.
[77] Scott, I, 437.
[78] I Stat. U. S., 106; Scott, I, 439.
[79] This act states that the territory “for the purposes of temporary government, shall be one district, the inhabitants of which shall enjoy all privileges, benefits, and advantages set forth in the Ordinance of the late Congress for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, and that the government of the said Territory shall be similar to that which is now exercised in the Territory northwest of the Ohio; except so far as it is otherwise provided in the conditions expressed in an Act of Congress of the present session, entitled, ‘An Act to Accept a Cession of Western Territory.’” Hurd, John Cadman, Law of Freedom and Bondage, II, 90.
[80] Acts of the Southwest Territory for 1794, Ch. I, Sec. 32. See also Scott, I, 471; and Meigs and Cooper’s Code of 1858, Secs. 3808-3809.
CHAPTER II
The Legal Status of the Slave in Tennessee
Tennessee inherited from North Carolina a liberal policy toward the slave, a policy which was fittingly expressed by Chief Justice Taylor in the following words:
It would be a subject of regret to every thinking person, if courts of Justice were restrained, by any austere rule of judicature, from keeping pace with the march of benignant policy and provident humanity, which for many years has characterized every legislative act relative to the protection of slaves, and which Christianity, by the mild diffusion of its light and influence, has contributed to promote.[1]
It will be seen throughout the study of the slave code that the slave in Tennessee enjoyed a privileged status, that he was more than a mere chattel, and that his disabilities, characteristic of slavery in many of the states, were considerably modified.