An Act to explain and amend an Act, entituled, An Act for the better Order and Government of Slaves; and for making free and rewarding a Negroe named Hector, belonging to Thomas Fuller, Esq. and paying his said Master the Value of the said Negroe.

WHEREAS by the said Act, entituled, An Act for the better Order and Government of Slaves, it is among other Things enacted, That upon Complaint made to any Justice of the Peace of any Felony, Burglary, Robbery, Burning of Houses, Canes, Rebellious Conspiracies, or any other Capital Offence whatsoever, he, the said Justice, shall issue out his Warrant for the apprehending the Offender or Offenders, and for all Persons to come before him that could give Evidence (and the Evidence of one Slave against another, in that and all other Cases, should be deemed good and sufficient Proof) and if upon Examination it probably appeared, that the apprehended were guilty, he should commit him, her, or them to Prison, and certify to the next Justice the Cause, and require him, by virtue of the sad Act, to associate himself to him, which such Justice is thereby required to do; and they so associated shall issue out their Warrant to summon Three Freeholders, setting forth to them the Matter, and requiring them, at a certain Day and Hour, and at such a Place as the Justices or Vestry, or the Justices, where no Vestry was, should, as by the said Act directed, appoint for such Trials; at which Time and Place the said Justices and Freeholders should cause the said Offender or Offenders, and Evidence, to come before them; and if they, on hearing of the Matter (the said Freeholders being the Justices first sworn to judge uprightly and according to Evidence, which Oaths the said Justices were by the said Act impowered and required to administer) should judge the Criminal or Criminals guilty of the Offence complained of, they or the major Part of them, of whom one to be a Justice, as in all Trials within the said Act, should give Sentence of Death, Transportation, Dismembering, or any other Punishment, as they in their Judgement should think meet to inflict; and forthwith by their Warrant, cause immediate Execution to be done by the common or any other Executioner (Women with Child only excepted, who are hereby reprieved till after Delivery;) and if they judge not the Criminals to die for any Crime, but to receive corporal Punishment, that the Owner, as a Recompence, pay unto the Party or Parties injured a certain Sum of Money; and in case the Owner or Owners refused to pay the said Sum, the said Justices and Freeholders might adjudge the said Criminal or Criminals to the Party or Parties injured, his, her, or their heirs for ever. And by the said Act it is further enacted, That if any Slave or Slaves should compass or imagine the Death of any white Person, and thereof be attained by open deed, before Two Justices and Three Freeholders, such Slave or Slaves should suffer Death, any Thing in the said Act to the contrary notwithstanding: And in the said Act it is provided, that when and as often as any of the aforementioned Crimes are committed by more than one slave that should deserve Death (Murder only excepted) that then, and in all such Cases, only one of the Criminals should suffer Death as exemplary to the rest, who were to be returned to the Owners, after having received such corporal punishment as the said Justices and Freeholders aforesaid should think fit to inflict. On which Proviso Doubts have arisen, whether the Justices and Freeholders could by the said Act give Sentence of Death against more than one Slave for one and the same Crime; and whether they could order any to be transported for any of the aforesaid Crimes, except in Cases where a Murder had been actually committed: For obviating which Doubts, and for an Explanation of the said Act, may it please you most Excellent Majesty that it may be enacted and declared; and be it enacted and declared by the Governor Council, and Assembly of this your Majesty's Island, and it is hereby enacted and declared by the Authority of the same, That it was the true Intent and Meaning of the said recited Act, that the crime of compassing and imagining the Death of any white Person, by any Slave or Slaves, should be deemed and adjudged a Crime of as high a Nature as the Crime of Murder and should be punished as such, and was excepted, or meant to be excepted within the said Proviso. 

 

II. AND whereas a Conspiracy has been lately formed by several Slaves in this Island, to destroy and desert the Settlements and Plantations to which they belonged, and to murder their Masters, Mistresses, Overseers, and many Families of white Persons; and that there is Room to apprehend that a general Massacre of the white People was intended, in case the Conspirators had succeeded in their first Attempts; and whereas in this, and in every Case of the like Nature, it may be necessary, for the publick Peace and Safety, that more than one of the Conspirators should suffer Death, and that none of them, especially the Leaders, should remain in this Island, where they would preserve their bloody and rebellious spirits; be it therefore further enacted and declared, That if any Negroe or other Slave or Slaves have, before the making of this Act, been engaged in any rebellious Conspiracy, or have compassed and imagined the Death of any white Person or Persons in this Island or shall hereafter be engaged in any such Conspiracy, or shall compass and imagine the Death of any any white Person, and be thereof attainted by open Deed, before Two Justices of the Peace and Three Freeholders, every such Slave or Slaves shall suffer Death, Transportation, or any other Punishment which the said Justices and Freeholders, or the major Part of them, in the same Manner as is directed by the said recited Act, shall think necessary for the publick Welfare and Safety, although the bloody Purposes of such Slave or Slaves be prevented before any murder hath been or shall be committed; any thing in the said Proviso to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. 

 

III. AND whereas Slaves have been tried, before the making of this Act, for compassing and imagining the Death of White Persons, pursuant to the said Act for the better Order and Government of Slaves: and the Justices and Freeholders have given Sentence of Death against more Slaves than one, for one and the same Offence, and have ordered others to be transported, and the said Slaves have been executed and transported accordingly; it is hereby enacted and declared, That the said Trials, Sentences, Executions, and Proceedings where and are just and legal. 

 

IV. AND be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That for all other capital Offences whatsoever, committed by Negroe or other Slaves after the passing this Act, it shall and may be lawful for the Justices and Freeholders, before such Negroe or other Slaves shall be tried, to put to such Death as to the said Justices and Freeholders shall seem expedient, such, and so many of such Negroe or other Slaves convicted before them of any capital Crime, as they shall think convenient for the publick Safety; or to transport such Slave or Slaves, or inflict such other Punishment upon them as in their Discretion they shall think fit; any thing in the said former recited Proviso to the contrary notwithstanding. 

 

V. AND whereas the late detestable Conspiracy was discovered by a Negroe Man-Slave, named Hector, belonging to Thomas Fuller, Esq; whereby the Execution of the said Conspiracy hath been happily prevented; be it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Negroe, named Hector, be immediately, from and after the passing of this Act, manumised and set free, and he is hereby manumised and set free from all Manner of Slavery whatsoever; and that Murray Crimble, or the Receiver-General for the Time being, do immediately pay to the said Negroe the Sum of Thirty Pounds; and do also, on the sixth of December annually, during the Life of the said Negroe, pay to him the like Sum or Thirty Pounds; and that the said Murray Crimble or the Receiver-General for the Time being, do also pay to the said Thomas Fuller the Sum of One hundred Pounds, in full Satisfaction for the said Negroe.