Frosty Stuff

The question is simply this: Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution. It will be observed, that the plea applies to that class of persons only whose ancestors were Negroes of the African race, and imported into this country, and sold and held as slaves. The only matter in issue before the court, therefore, is whether the descendants of such slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who are born of parents who had become free before their birth, are citizens of a State, in the sense in which the word citizen is used in the Constitution of the United States… The words 'people of the

AN ACT FOR THE BETTER ORDERING AND GOVERNING NEGROES AND OTHER SLAVES IN THIS PROVINCE WHEREAS, in his Majesty’s plantations in America, slavery has been introduced and allowed, and the people commonly called Negroes, Indians, mulattoes and mestizos, have been deemed absolute slaves, and the subjects of property in the hands of the particular persons, the extend of whose power over such slaves ought to be settled and limited by positive laws, so that the slave may be kept in due subjection and obedience, and the owners and other persons having the care and government of slaves may be restrained from exercising too great rigor and cruelty over them, and that the public peace and order of this Province may be preserved: We pray your most sacred Majesty that it may be enacted... I. And be it enacted...That all Negroes and Indians, (free Indians in amity with this government, and degrees, mulattoes, and mestizos, who are now free, excepted,) mulattoes or mestizos who now are, or shall here

I. Decrees the expulsion of Jews from the colony. II. Makes it imperative on masters to impart religious instruction to their Slaves. III. Permits the exercise of the Roman Catholic creed only. Every other mode of worship is prohibited. IV. Negroes placed under the direction or supervision of any other person than a Catholic, are liable to confiscation. V. Sundays and holidays are to be strictly observed. All negroes found at work on these days are to be confiscated. VI. We forbid our white subjects, of both sexes, to marry with the blacks, under the penalty of being fined and subjected to some other arbitrary punishment. We forbid all curates, priests, or missionaries of our secular or regular clergy, and even our chaplains in our navy to sanction such marriages. We also forbid all our white subjects, and even the manumitted or free-born blacks, to live in a state of concubinage with blacks. Should there be any issue from this kind of intercourse, it is our will that the person so off

Source: Solomon Northup. Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative ofSolomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in1841, and Rescued in 1853. (unc.edu)     Solomon Northrup (1807-1857) was born in New York, the son of a freed slave and a free Black woman. He was illegally kidnapped and sold South. Enslaved in Louisiana, Northrup was finally able to get a letter sent to a relative through a sympathetic visitor. A massive campaign ensued to locate and free him, eventually involving a US Senator and a Supreme Court justice. After finally gaining his freedom, he published his famous book, “Twelve Years a Slave”, about his experiences. This excerpt begins after Northrup is kidnapped and imprisoned by slave traders, Burch and Radburn, while on a visit to Washington DC.          The building to which the yard was attached, was two stories high, fronting on one of the public streets of Washington. Its outside presented only the appearance of a quiet private residence. A stranger