III. The Status of the Negro in the Southwest Territory from 1790 to 1796
The western part of North Carolina continued to demand a separate political existence, and in February, 1790, it was ceded to the National Government by North Carolina. The Act of Cession provided that “the laws in force and in use in the State of North Carolina at this time, shall be and continue in full force within the territory hereby ceded until the same shall be repealed or otherwise altered by the legislative authority of the said territory”; and also, “that no regulations made or to be made by congress shall tend to emancipate slaves.”[77] The cession was accepted by Congress April 2, 1790, on the above condition;[78] and when Congress, on May 26, 1790, organized the government for the Southwest Territory, it mentioned the conditions laid down in the Act of Cession.[79]
The provisions of the Act of Cession show how slavery, as it had developed in North Carolina by 1790, was transplanted and legalized in the territory that became Tennessee in 1796. There is no recorded protest on the part of the people of the territory. The contract between the National Government, North Carolina, and the Southwest Territory, shows that the economic importance of slavery was already recognized.
The legislation of the Territory on slavery consists of one act, relating to the negro’s participation in court procedure. Negroes, whether bond or free, were permitted to be witnesses for and against each other, but denied this privilege in cases to which a white man was a party. Persons of mixed blood, descended from negroes or Indians, inclusive of the third generation, suffered a similar restriction. No person of mixed blood to any degree whatever, who had been held in slavery, could be a witness against a white person within twelve months of his liberation.[80]
This preliminary study suggests the general lines along which the institution of slavery developed in the succeeding decades. The social and religious phases of the negro’s life were given less attention than the economic and legal. His common law status was constantly changing to a statutory basis. He was exchanging the status of a servant at common law for that of a mere chattel at statute law. His place in judicial procedure was determined. It was in this connection that racial prejudice made its appearance. The foundation for a comprehensive patrol system was established. The state asserted its right to limit manumission. Free negroes had not become sufficiently numerous by 1796 to call for the serious consideration that they later received. Consequently, there was a relatively small amount of legislation concerning them prior to this date. Some restrictions, however, were made on their relations with the slave and on the process of manumission. On the whole, it may be concluded that there had been laid a fairly secure foundation, for the status of both the slave and the free negro, which future events only modified.