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Whereas certain other regulations are deemed necessary to satisfy the wishes of His Majesty’s government, touching the melioration of the condition of Slavery in this colony: And whereas the Legislature is willing to go to the utmost length that reason or prudence would sanction in furtherance of those wishes: [Clause 1] Be it therefore enacted by his Excellency Sir Henry Warde, Knight, Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, His Majesty’s Captain General and Governor in Chief of this island, Chancellor, Ordinary, and Vice Admiral of the same, the honourable the members of His Majesty’s Council, and the General Assembly of this island, and by [2] the authority of the same, that from and after the passing of the aforementioned Act, entitled “An Act to repeal several Acts and Clauses of Acts respecting Slaves, and for consolidating and bringing into one Act the several Laws relating thereto, &c.,” no master, owner, or overseer of Slaves, shall allow any driver, or person exercising the authority of driver, to carry a whip of any description into the field in which the people under his direction are at work.
[Clause 2] And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the punishment by flogging shall not be inflicted by or on behalf of the master, upon females above fourteen years of age, except in the execution of the sentence of a magistrate or other court.
[Clause 3] And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that any person who shall be convicted before two justices of the peace, by one or more competent witnesses, of having violated either of the foregoing clauses of this Act, shall be fined in a sum not less than five pounds current money, nor exceeding fifty, to be applied to the uses of the island,
[Clause 4] And it is hereby declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every slave shall have and enjoy absolute right and control over any property which he or she may be lawfully possessed of, that he may dispose of it at pleasure, either by will or otherwise without the knowledge or consent of his master; that he may sue or be sued at law for all matters relating to it: Provided always, that a Slave contracting debts, or condemned to pay costs or damages, shall only be liable to the extent of such property as he or she may actually possess, and that no Slave shall be subject to personal arrest for any debts, cost, or damages, which he or she may have incurred: and provided also that no Slave shall have a right to keep cows, hogs, sheep, or other stock on lands belonging to his master without his consent.
Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this Act, or anything herein contained, shall not be in force until His Majesty’s pleasure on the same shall be known.
Read three times, and passed the Council unanimously, this seventeenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
[Rejected by House of Assembly]
(Signed) WILLIAM HUSBANDS, Deputy Clerk of Council.
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