More than seven slaves walking or standing together in the road, without a white man, may receive twenty lashes each from any person.
Any slave, or Indian, who takes away, or lets loose a boat,
from any place where it is fastened, receives thirty-nine lashes for the first offence; and, according to some laws, one ear is cut off for the second offence.
For carrying a gun, powder, shot, a club, or any weapon whatsoever, offensive or defensive, thirty-nine lashes by order of a justice; and in some States, twenty lashes from the nearest constable, without a conviction by the justice.
For selling any article, without a specific ticket from his master, ten lashes by the captain of the patrollers,[R] or thirty-nine by order of a magistrate. The same punishment for being at any assembly deemed unlawful.
[R] The patrols are very generally low and dissipated characters, and the cruelties which negroes suffer from them, while in a state of intoxication, are sometimes shocking. The law endows these men with very great power.
For travelling by himself from his master's land to any other place, unless by the most accustomed road, forty lashes; the same for travelling in the night without a pass; the same for being found in another negro's kitchen, or quarters; and every negro found in company with such vagrant, receives twenty lashes.
For hunting with dogs, even in the woods of his master, thirty lashes.
For running away and lurking in swamps, a negro may be lawfully killed by any person. If a slave happen to die of moderate correction, it is likewise justifiable homicide.
For endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, if provisions are prepared, the slave is punished with death; and any negro aiding or abetting suffers death.