There were only two instances of threatened insurrection in the slave history of Tennessee. The first one of these occurred in 1831, and was nipped in the bud by information secured from a female slave.[130] It resulted in a petition being sent to the legislature signed by 108 people, asking for a better patrol system. The second was planned in 1857, and seems to have included the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.[131] The scheme was discovered in November of 1857 among the slaves employed at the Cumberland Iron Works in Tennessee just before they were ready to execute it. One account says, “more than sixty slaves in the Iron Works were implicated, and nine were hung, four by the decision of the court and five by a mob.” The Missouri Democrat of December 4 states that “For the past month, the Journals from different Southern states have been filled with numberless alarms respecting contemplated risings of the negro population. In Tennessee, in Missouri, in Virginia, and in Alabama, so imminent has been the danger that the most severe measures have been adopted to prevent their congregating or visiting after night, to suppress their customary attendance at neighborhood preachings and to keep a vigilant watch upon all their movements, by an efficient patrolling system. This is assuredly a most lamentable condition for the slave states, for nothing causes such terror upon the plantations as the bare suspicion of these insurrections.”[132]
F. The Assembly of Slaves.
All slave gatherings on the master’s plantation were exclusively under his control, as he was responsible for the results. It was considered dangerous to society, however, for slaves to collect miscellaneously. By act of 1803, it was made a ten-dollar fine for any one to permit the slaves of another to congregate on his premises without passes from their master.[133] To aid the justices of the peace in enforcing this act, the fine was equally divided between the county and the reporter of its violation. There was so much zeal shown in the enforcement of this act that the fine was reduced in 1813 to not less than five nor more than ten dollars.[134]
The insurrections over the country in the early thirties and rumors of an insurrection in Tennessee in 1831, combined with the abolition propaganda, gave added significance to the meetings of slaves. It now became necessary to punish slaves for participating in unlawful assemblies as well as to fine those permitting them.
The act of 1831 empowered justices of the peace, constables and patrols to disperse such meetings and to inflict twenty-five lashes upon the slaves engaged, if necessary. The fine for permitting unlawful assemblies was now left to the discretion of the court.[135] The amount of litigation likely to result from the enforcement of this measure made it necessary to define the terms unlawful assembly.[136]
G. Punishment of Slaves—
1. Offenses Punishable by Stripes. Trading without permits from their masters or forging passes was punishable by stripes by act of 1799. The number of stripes was left to the discretion of the justice but was not to exceed thirty-nine.[137] In 1806, riots, unlawful assemblies, trespasses, seditious speeches, insulting language to whites, were made offenses punishable by stripes at the discretion of the justice.[138] By act of 1813, the slave was whipped for selling any article not made by himself.[139] The number of stripes was not less than five, nor more than thirty. He was punished for selling whiskey or keeping it at some other place than his own home. This offense was punishable by not less than three nor more than ten lashes.[140] It is interesting to notice the leniency in the punishment for selling this particular article. Conspiracy, which was punishable by death alone in the act 1741, might by act of 1831 be punished by whipping, pillory, or imprisonment.[141] Death still remained a proper punishment for this offense, but one of the others-could be substituted at the discretion of the justice, depending on the character and extent of the conspiracy. By act of 1844, the runaway could be worked on the streets of an incorporated town and his wages went to the poor.[142]
2. Capital Offenses. By act of 1741, killing of horses, hogs, or cattle without a permit from the master was punishable by death for second offense.[143] In 1819, murder, arson, rape, burglary, and robbery were made capital offenses and punishment in all other cases was not to extend to life or limb.[144] By this act the suffering of death by being outlawed as a runaway was abolished. By act of 1835, intent to commit rape upon a white woman was punishable by hanging.[145] The burning of a barn, a bridge, or a house with intent to kill was a capital offense.[146]
3. Offenses Punishable at the Discretion of the Jury. The burning of barns, houses, bridges, steamboats, manufacturing plants, and valuable buildings or property of any kind were offenses for which the jury could punish at their discretion, provided such punishment did not extend to life or limb. All offenses of slaves for which there was not a specific punishment fixed by law were left to the discretion of the jury.[147] The cutting off of ears, standing in the pillory, and branding were some of the older punishments for which whipping came to be a substitute.