Since this court was not one of the regular courts, it sat at any time and thus prevented the master from suffering excessive loss of the slave’s time between terms of court. This court had rather free procedure and broad jurisdiction.[40]
6. Witness: The slave was permitted to be a witness in the trial of other slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes.[41] He was not permitted to give testimony in court in a case to which a white man was a party.[42] His paganism was a partial basis for denying him this privilege.[43] His moral depravity and social prejudice were, undoubtedly, the main forces in making this restriction a universal law of slavery.
The slave was cautioned against false swearing because he generally had little regard for his word. If he was convicted of false swearing, one ear was nailed to the pillory for one hour and then cut off. The other ear was treated in the same way; and to complete this inhuman punishment, the slave was given thirty-nine lashes on his back.[44]
7. Manumission: Manumission was the door of escape from slavery that was constantly open to the slave. At common law, a master could free his slaves on the basis of any agreement that he might make with them. The owner of a slave could dispose of him like any other piece of property. The spirit of manumission was so promoted by the churches and by the doctrine of natural rights of the American Revolution that the State, in self defense, placed a limitation on the common law method of manumission.[45] After 1777, slaves could be freed only on a basis of meritorious service, of which the county court was the judge.[46] Slaves freed by any other method could be resold into slavery by the court.
The “pernicious practice” of manumitting slaves at common law continued,[47] and the county court began to resell such negroes into slavery. The power of the court to give valid title in such sales was doubted, and the legislature was forced by special act to guarantee the validity of the sale of illegally liberated slaves, made by the county courts.[48] The preamble to this measure states that “many negroes are now going at large, to the terror of the good people of this state.”[49] This law was weak in that the power of apprehending illegally liberated slaves was optional in freeholders only. In 1788, the state gave any freeman the power to inform a justice of the peace of any such slave, and required such justice to issue to the sheriff a warrant for the arrest of the slave.[50] This legislation indicates a growth of the manumission movement in the face of legal restrictions, and, also, registers a protest against the conservative forces of society.
8. Suffrage: It does not appear that the slave ever possessed the right of suffrage. The free negro, however, voted throughout the period of colonial history in North Carolina. The Declaration of Rights of North Carolina, adopted December 17, 1776, gave the franchise to “all freemen.”[51] The Constitution of the State, adopted the next day, gave the franchise to “all freemen” with certain qualifications as to age, residence, property, and taxes.[52] This constitution remained in force until 1835, during which time the free negro voted in North Carolina.
B. RESTRICTIONS—
1. Marriage: The slave never acquired legal marriage. It was generally held that the slave regarded marriage lightly, and that, therefore, the separation of husband and wife was not a serious matter. This philosophy was largely true, but, at the same time, it fitted into the economics of slavery very advantageously.
It is not to be inferred from the above that the slave did not have formal marriage. He was usually married with considerable ceremony by either his own minister or a white clergyman. Special preparation was generally made for the wedding, which frequently took place in the dining-room of the master’s mansion. It may well be contended that this religious sanction was more sacred to the slave, who was of a very religious nature, and, therefore, more binding than a civil marriage would have been.