"To prohibit the introduction into this State of any slaves who may have committed any high crime in any other State or territory;
"To prohibit the introduction of any slave for the purpose of speculation, or as an article of trade or merchandise;
"To prohibit the introduction of any slave or the offspring of any slave, who heretofore may have been, or who hereafter may be imported from any foreign country into the United States or any territory thereof in contravention of any existing statue of the United States."[385]
The first constitutions of most of the other Southern States had provisions somewhat similar to these among which are Arkansas,[386] Florida,[387] and Texas.[388]
The only laws passed by Missouri regarding importation were those of 1835, 1843 and 1845. The law of 1843 simply prohibited the importation of slaves entitled to freedom at a future date[389] and against kidnapping in 1845.[390] The law of 1835 was the leading one. It prohibited the introduction of any slave who had elsewhere committed any infamous crime, or any who had been removed from Missouri for crime, or any imported into the United States contrary to law.[391]
Texas[392] and Florida[393] as States seem never to have prohibited the importation of slaves except those guilty of crime.
The only act of Arkansas concerning importation was passed in 1838 and put in force by proclamation of the Governor March 20, 1839. It was never repealed so far as we could find, and is as follows:
"No person shall knowingly bring or cause to be brought into this State, or hold, purchase, hire, sell, or otherwise dispose of within the same; first, any slave who may have committed in any other State, territory or district within the United States, or any foreign country, any offense, which, if committed within the State, would, according to the laws thereof, be felony or infamous crime; or second, any slave who shall have been convicted in this State, of any felony or infamous crime, and ordered to be taken or removed out of this State, according to the laws thereof; or third, any slave who shall have actually been removed out of this State after a conviction of felony or other infamous crime, although no order of removal shall have been made; or fourth, any person or the descendant of any person, who shall have been imported into the United States, or any of the territories thereof in contravention of the laws of the United States, and held as a slave."[394]
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