These statutes of 1865–68 are here called the “Black Laws.” This term was first applied to the laws of the border and Northern States passed before and up to the Civil War to fix the position of free persons of color. It is well to make a cursory examination of these laws of the free States, because they are prototypes of many of the statutes enacted by the Southern States while unhampered by Federal legislation. All the States, North as well as South, had previously faced the problem of the free Negro and made laws concerning him. Naturally, therefore, the South, now that all its Negroes were declared free, turned for precedents to the other States which had already had experience with the free Negro.
The following are some of the statutes that had been enacted with regard to free Negroes by States lying outside of what was later the Confederacy:
Maryland,[[56]] in 1846, denied Negroes, slave or free, the right to testify in cases in which any white person was concerned, though it permitted the testimony of slaves against free Negroes. The Constitution[[57]] of 1851 forbade the legislature to pass any law abolishing the relation of master and servant.
Delaware,[[58]] in 1851, prohibited the immigration of free Negroes from any State except Maryland: moreover, it forbade them to attend camp meetings, except for religious worship under the control of white people, or political gatherings. A law of 1852 provided that no free Negroes should have the right to vote or “to enjoy any other rights of a freeman other than to hold property, or to obtain redress in law and in equity for any injury to his or her person or property.”
Missouri,[[59]] in 1847, forbade the immigration into the State of any free Negro; enacted that no person should keep a school for the instruction of Negroes in reading and writing; forbade any religious meetings of Negroes unless a justice of the peace, constable, or other officer was present; and declared that schools and religious meetings for free Negroes were “unlawful assemblages.”
Ohio, which probably had the most notorious “Black Laws” of any free State, “required colored people to give bonds for good behavior as a condition of residence, excluded them from the schools, denied them the rights of testifying in courts of justice when a white man was party on either side, and subjected them to other unjust and degrading disabilities.”[[60]]
Indiana,[[61]] in 1851, prohibited free Negroes and mulattoes from coming into the State, and fined all persons who employed or encouraged them to remain in the State between ten and five hundred dollars for each offense.[[62]] The fines were to be devoted to a fund for the colonization of Negroes.[[63]] A law, which was submitted to a special vote and passed by a majority of ninety thousand, prohibited intermarriage between the races, provided for colonization of Negroes, and made incompetent the testimony of persons having one-eighth or more Negro blood.[[64]]
Illinois,[[65]] in 1853, made it a misdemeanor for a Negro to come into the State with the intention of residing there, and provided that persons violating this law should be prosecuted and fined or sold for a time to pay the fine.[[66]]
Iowa,[[67]] in 1851, forbade the immigration of free Negroes,[[68]] and provided that free colored persons should not give testimony in cases in which a white man was a party.
Oregon,[[69]] in 1849, forbade the entrance of Negroes as settlers or inhabitants, the reason being that it would be dangerous to have them associate with the Indians and incite the latter to hostility against white people.