<emph>Senate Bill No. 8. </emph> <emph>A Bill to Permit Free Persons of Color to Select Their Own Masters and Become Slaves: </emph> Electronic Edition. North Carolina. General Assembly, 1860—1861 Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Jim Crawford Text encoded by Melissa M. Edwards and Natalia Smith First edition, 1999 ca. 20 K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999.

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 Call number Cp326.1 N87g6 (North Carolina Collection, UNC-CH) Senate Bill No. 8. A Bill to Permit Free Persons of Color to Select Their Own Masters and Become Slaves. North Carolina. General Assembly, 1860—1861John Spelman, Publisher to the State.

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 Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998 Slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- North Carolina. African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- North Carolina. Slavery -- Law and legislation -- North Carolina. 1999-05-19, Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition. 1999-04-08, Natalia Smith, project manager, finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing. 1999-04-08, Melissa M. Edwards finished TEI/SGML encoding 1999-04-01, Jim Crawford finished scanning (OCR) and proofing. SENATE BILL, NO. 8. SES. 1860—'61. Introuced by Mr. HUMPHREY, of Onslow. John Spelman, Printer to the State. A BILL TO PERMIT FREE PERSONS OF COLOR TO SELECT THEIR OWN MASTERS AND BECOME SLAVES.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the 2 State of North-Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the 3 authority of the same, That it shall be lawful for any free 4 person of color, now in this State, or who may hereafter 5 be within its limits, being over the age of fourteen years, 6 to choose his or her master, and become a slave, upon the 7 terms and conditions hereinafter named; Provided, said 8 slave shall not be subject to forced sales for any debt 10 incurred by, or judgement rendered against the chosen 11 master, prior to the period of enslavement.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That whenever any free 2 person of color, as aforesaid, desires to choose a master, 3 such person may file a petition in the court of pleas and 4 quarter sessions of the county in which he or she resides, 5 setting forth his or her desire to choose an owner; which 6 petition shall be signed by the petitioner, in the presence 7 of at least two subscribing witnesses; and thereupon the 8 clerk of the court in which such petition shall have been 9 filed, shall give notice thereof by posting such notice at 10 the court house door for four weeks; and said clerk shall 11 issue a summons to the petitioner and the person designated 12 in the petition as the proposed master, citing them 13 to appear before said court, at the term thereof next 14 succeeding the expiration of the publication of said notice, 15 and shall also issue a subpœna for the subscribing 16 witnesses to the petition, which summons and subpœna shall 17 be executed in the same manner as like process in other 18 cases.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That upon the appearance 2 in open court, of both the petitioner and the person 3 designated in the petition as the desired master, the court 4 shall proceed to examine each party separately, as well as 5 the subscribing witnesses to the petition, and such other 6 person as the court may seem fit; and at such examination, 7 the county solicitor shall be present, and see that a 8 full examination is had, and he shall represent the 9 petitioners in such an examination. And if upon such 10 examination the court shall be satisfied that there is no fraud 11 or collusion between the parties, that the proposed master 12 is a person of good repute, and there is no good reason to 13 the contrary, the said court shall have power, by decree 14 entered into the records of the court, to grant the prayer 15 of the petitioners; and from the entry of such decree, the 16 property in said free person of color, as a slave, shall vest 17 in the person so chosen as master, and his rights and 18 liabilities and the condition of the petitioners shall be in all 19 respects the same as though such petitioner had been born 20 a slave to the master so chosen.

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That when any such 2 petitioner as hereinbefore mentioned, shall be a female, 3 having children under fourteen years of age, and shall in 4 her petition ask that such children shall become the slaves 5 of the same person chosen by her as master, if the court 6 shall, after examination as in this act before provided, 7 grant the prayer of the petitioner as to herself, it shall 8 also decree such children in like manner, to be the slaves 9 of the same owner; Provided, That where the mother of 10 such children, under the age of fourteen years, shall be 11 deceased, in that case the next friend of such children 12 shall have authority in their behalf, to proceed in the 13 same manner to the selection of a master for them, as the 14 mother might do under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That the county solicitor 2 shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars for each examination 3 attended by him under the provisions of this act, 4 which shall be taxed as costs on the proceedings, and all 5 the costs of the proceedings shall be paid by the master 6 to whom the slave may be decreed; and after a petition 7 shall have been filed under provisions of this act, and 8 during the pendency of the proceedings under the same, 9 no proceedings shall be had against the petitioner under 10 any law prohibiting free persons of color from remaining 11 in or coming to this State.