Black Laws of 1804 and 1807

Black Laws of 1804 and 1807 discouraged African American migration to Ohio. Slavery was not permitted in the 1803 Constitution. The 1804 law forbade black residents in Ohio without a certificate if they were free. The 1807 law required a $500 bond for good behavior.[1]

History

Ohio's 1803 Constitution continued the Northwest Ordinance's prohibition of slavery north of the Ohio River. Many Ohioans had come from Southern states that allowed slavery and were not willing to grant rights to African Americans.[2]

The 1804 law required black and mulatto residents to have a certificate from the Clerk of the Court that they were free. Employers who violated were fined $10 to $50 split between informer and state.[3]

Under the 1807 law, black and mulatto residents required a $500 bond for good behavior and against becoming a township charge. The township Overseer of the Poor were duty bound to expel those without a bond. Harboring, employing or concealing one without a bond was a $100 penalty split between informer and state. It also forbade a Negro to be a witness against a white person.[4]

Ohio blacks could not vote, hold office, serve in the state militia, or serve jury duty. Blacks were not permitted in the public school system until 1848, when a law was passed that permitted communities to establish segregated schools.[5]

In 1837, black Ohioans met in a statewide convention seeking repeal of the Black Laws.[6]

The Black Laws were partially repealed in 1849, ending the bond-posting requirement,[7] for Free Soil Party support of Democrats.[2] Cuyahoga County delegates blocked antiblack provisions from the 1851 constitution.[8] Under the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, free Blacks were kidnapped and conscripted into slavery, as suspected fugitive slaves had no rights in court and could not defend themselves against accusations.[9]

Effects

Enforcement of Ohio's Black Laws appear to have been generally episodic and arbitrary, lightly enforced on the whole, but occasionally used to threaten and intimidate black residents of the state. In 1818 Wayne Township, where Portsmouth was located at the time, the township's constable was paid $4.18 to warn out blacks and mulattos. In 1829 Cincinnati, a race riot destroyed many homes in the black section of the city and exiled nearly half of the city's black population, some to Canada. According to Nelson Evans, on Black Friday, January 21, 1830, in Portsmouth, all 80 black people were deported.[10][11] The Portsmouth expulsions led to the establishment of a black community in Huston Hollow with the Underground Railroad. In 1846, the Randolph Freedpeople were blocked from settling on land granted to them despite having posted bonds.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Masur, Kate (2021-03-23). Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-1-324-00594-0.
  2. ^ a b "Black Laws of 1807". Ohio History Central. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013.
  3. ^ Wisconsin, State Historical Society of (1906). Proceedings of the Society at Its 34th- Annual Meeting ... the Society.
  4. ^ Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas (1910). Race Distinctions in American Law. D. Appleton. ISBN 978-0-384-58030-5. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  5. ^ Lomotey, Kofi (2010). Encyclopedia of African American Education. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4129-4050-4.
  6. ^ Masur, Kate (24 March 2021). "Decades Before the Civil War, Black Activists Organized for Racial Equality". Smithsonian Magazine.
  7. ^ Terry, Shelley (14 December 2019). "Slavery in Ohio". Star Beacon.
  8. ^ "Black Laws". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. 11 May 2018.
  9. ^ Meltzer, Milton (1993). Slavery: A World History. Da Capo Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-306-80536-3.
  10. ^ Feight, Andrew. "'Black Friday': Enforcing Ohio's 'Black Laws' in Portsmouth, Ohio". Scioto Historical.
  11. ^ Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 1964-01-23.
  12. ^ Scott, Dulce Maria; Rowe, Jill E. (2016-11-30). Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies of Free Blacks in the Old Northwest. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-3838-6.

Further reading

  • Gelbart, Claire (1 April 2025). "Ohio's 'Black Laws'". Equal Justice Initiative.
  • Hammond, John Craig (2014). "'The Most Free of the Free States': Politics, Slavery, Race, and Regional Identity in Early Ohio, 1790–1820". Ohio History. 121 (1): 35–57. doi:10.1353/ohh.2014.0015. Project MUSE 538849.
  • Barnes, L. Diane (2017). "'Only a Moral Power': African Americans, Reformers, and the Repeal of Ohio's Black Laws". Ohio History. 124 (1): 7–21. doi:10.1353/ohh.2017.0002. Project MUSE 647544.
  • Hickok, Charles Thomas (1896). The Negro in Ohio, 1802-1870 (Thesis). hdl:2027/umn.31951002319209z.
  • Middleton, Stephen (2005). The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Early Ohio. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1623-5.
  • Eslinger, Ellen (2005). "The Evoluthion of Racial Politics in Early Ohio". In Cayton, Andrew Robert Lee; Hobbs, Stuart Dale (eds.). The Center of a Great Empire: The Ohio Country in the Early American Republic. Ohio University Press. pp. 81–104. ISBN 978-0-8214-1620-4.
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