This was bold legislation; but it was not all. Negroes were required to carry passes, as in the slave States. And on the 17th of September, 1807, "An Act for the Introduction of Negroes and Mulattoes into" the territory was passed.
"Sec. 1. That it shall and may be lawful for any person being the owner or possessor of any negroes or mulattoes of and above the age of fifteen years, and owning service and labor as slaves in any of the States or territories of the United States, or for any citizens of the said States or territories purchasing the same to bring the said negroes and mulattoes into this territory.
"Sec. 2. The owners or possessors of any negroes or mulattoes as aforesaid, and bringing the same into this territory, shall, within thirty days after such removal, go with the same before the clerk of Court of Common Pleas of proper county, and in presence of said clerk the said owner or possessor shall determine and agree to, and with his or her negro or mulatto, upon the term of years which the said negro or mulatto will and shall serve his or her said owner or possessor, and the clerk shall make a record.
"Sec. 3. If any negro or mulatto removed into this territory as aforesaid shall refuse to serve his or her owner as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for such person, within sixty days thereafter, to remove the said negro or mulatto to any place [to] which by the laws of the United States or territory from whence such owner or possessor may [have come] or shall be authorized to remove the same. (As quoted in Phœbe v. Jay, Breese, Ill. R., 208.)
"Sec. 4. An owner failing to act as required in the preceding sections should forfeit all claim and right to the service of such negro or mulatto.
"Sec. 5. Declares that any person removing into this territory and being the owner or possessor of any negro or mulatto as aforesaid, under the age of fifteen years, or if any person shall hereafter acquire a property in any negro or mulatto under the age aforesaid, and who shall bring them into this territory, it shall and may be lawful for such person, owner, or possessor to hold the said negro to service or labor—the males until they arrive at the age of thirty-five, and females until they arrive at the age of thirty-two years.
"Sec. 6. Provides that any person removing any negro or mulatto into this territory under the authority of the preceding sections, it shall be incumbent on such person, within thirty days thereafter, to register the name and age of such negro or mulatto with the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for the proper county.
"Sec. 7. Requires new registry on removal to another county."
"Secs. 8, 9. Penalties by fine for breach of this act.
"Sec. 10. Clerk to take security that negro be not chargeable when his term expires.
"Sec. 12. Fees.
"Sec. 13. That the children born in said territory of a parent of color owning service or labor, by indenture according to law, should serve the master or mistress of such parent—the males until the age of thirty, and the females until the age of twenty-eight years. (As quoted in Boon v. Juliet, 1836, 1, Scammon, 258.)
"Sec. 14. That an act respecting apprentices misused by their master or mistress should apply to such children. (See the statute cited in Rankin v. Lydia, 2, A. K. Marshall's Ky., 467; and in Jarrot v. Jarrot, 2, Gilman, 19.) This act was repealed in 1810."[48]
Under the first constitution of Indiana, adopted in 1816, Negroes were not debarred from the elective franchise. In Article i, Section 1, of the Bill of Rights, this remarkable language occurs: "That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights," etc. But the very next year the primal rights of the Negro as a citizen were struck down by the following: "No negro, mulatto, or Indian shall be a witness, except in pleas of the State against negroes, mulattoes, or Indians, or in civil cases where negroes, mulattoes, or Indians alone shall be parties."[49]
In 1819 [March 22d], an execution law was passed by which the time of service of Negroes could be sold on execution against the master, in the same manner as personal estate. From the time of the sale, such Negroes or Mulattoes were compelled to serve the buyer until the expiration of the term of service.[50]
In 1831, an act regulating free Negroes and Mulattoes, servants and slaves, declared:
"Sec. 1. Negroes and mulattoes emigrating into the State shall give bond, etc.
"Sec. 2. In failure of this, such negro, etc., may be hired out and the proceeds applied to his benefit, or removed from the State under the poor law.
"Sec. 3. Penalty for committing such without authority.
"Sec. 4. Penalty for harboring such who have not given bond.
"Sec. 5. That the right of any persons to pass through this State, with his, her, or their negroes or mulattoes, servant or servants, when emigrating or travelling to any other State or territory or country, making no unnecessary delay, is hereby declared and secured."[51]
In 1851 the new constitution limited the right of franchise to "white male citizens of the United States." "No negro or mulatto shall have the right of suffrage."
"Art. xii., Sec. 1. The militia shall consist of all able-bodied white male persons, between, etc.
"Art. xiii., Sec. 1. No negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in the State after the adoption of this Constitution.
"Sec. 2. All contracts made with any negro or mulatto coming into the State contrary to the foregoing section shall be void; and any person who shall employ such negro or mulatto or encourage him to remain in the State shall be fined not less than ten, nor more than five hundred dollars.
"Sec. 3. All fines which may be collected for a violation of the provisions of this article, or of any law hereafter passed for the purpose of carrying the same into execution, shall be set apart and appropriated for the colonization of such negroes and mulattoes and their descendants as may be in the State at the adoption of this Constitution and may be willing to emigrate.
"Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall pass laws to carry out the provisions of this article."
Other severe laws were enacted calculated to modify and limit the rights of free persons of color.
The first constitution of the State of Illinois, adopted in 1818, limited the [Art. ii, Sec. 27] elective franchise to "free white" persons. Article v, Sec. 1, exempted "negroes, mulattoes, and Indians" from service in the militia. In March, 1819, "An Act Respecting Free Negroes, Mulattoes, Servants, and Slaves" passed. Sec. 1 required Negro and Mulatto persons coming into the State to produce a certificate of freedom. Sec. 2 required them to register their family as well as themselves. Sec. 3 required persons bringing slaves into the State, for the purpose of emancipating them, to give bonds. Passes were required of Colored people, and many other hard exactions. The bill above referred to contained twenty-five sections.[52]