Potter’s Revisal, ch. 467, § 2.
Be it further enacted, That when any slave shall be legally outlawed in any of the counties within mentioned, the owner of which shall reside in one of the said counties, and the said slave shall be killed in consequence of such outlawry, the value of such slave shall be ascertained by a jury which shall be empanelled at the succeeding court of the county where the said slave was killed, and a certificate of such valuation shall be given by the clerk of the court to the owner of said slave, who shall be entitled to receive two-thirds of such valuation from the sheriff of the county wherein the slave was killed. [Extended to other counties in 1797.—Potter, ch. 480, § 1.] now obsolete.
[10]. Gen. 4:14.—“And it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”
CHAPTER V.
PROTECTIVE ACTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND LOUISIANA.—THE IRON COLLAR OF LOUISIANA AND NORTH CAROLINA.
Thus far by way of considering the protective acts of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Certain miscellaneous protective acts of various other states will now be cited, merely as specimens of the spirit of legislation.
Stroud, p. 39. 2 Brevard’s Digest, p. 241.
In South Carolina, the act of 1740 punished the wilful, deliberate murder of a slave by disfranchisement, and by a fine of seven hundred pounds current money, or, in default of payment, imprisonment for seven years. But the wilful murder of a slave, in the sense contemplated in this law, is a crime which would not often occur. The kind of murder which was most frequent among masters or overseers was guarded against by another section of the same act,—how adequately the reader will judge for himself, from the following quotation:
Stroud’s Sketch, p. 40. 2 Brevard’s Digest, 241. James’ Digest, 392.
If any person shall, on a sudden heat or passion, or by undue correction, kill his own slave, or the slave of any other person, he shall forfeit the sum of three hundred and fifty pounds current money.