Virginia Laws on Slavery and Servitude
May 1732-ACT VI. An Act to make the Stealing of Slaves, Felony, without
benefit of Clergy.
I. WHEREAS divers wicked and evil-disposed persons, intending the ruin
and impoverishing of their fellow subjects, have devised, and of late times
frequently practised, in several parts of this colony, unlawful and wicked
courses, in secretly taking and carrying away sundry negro, mulatto, and
Indian slaves, and conveying them out of this dominion, or into places
remote or unknown to the owners of such slaves, to the insupportable wrong
and damage of many of his majesty's good subjects: For prevention whereof,
II. Be it enacted, by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and Burgesses
of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted and declared,
by the authority of the same, That if any person or persons, from and after
the passing of this act, shall steal any negro, mulatto, or Indian slave
whatsoever, out of, or from the possession of the owner or overseer of
such slave, the person or persons so offending, shall be, and are hereby
declared to be felons; and shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.
Source: Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, vol.
4, p. 324-325.
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