Relevant Laws

One cannot understand how slavery and freedom operated in antebellum Maryland without an awareness of how the laws of the state structured people's options and choices. Where can scholars find these laws? Look no further! This resource page provides a list of and links to descriptions of the major acts of the Maryland General Assembly regarding slavery and manumission, along with key dates in the history of the territory, of the Quakers and Hopkins family, and of the United States, from 1632 to 1873.*

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1632 - The Province of Maryland was founded by royal charter by Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. The charter was granted to Cecilius Calvert, the 2nd Baron of Baltimore (1605–1675), on June 20, 1632. The new colony was named Maryland after King Charles's wife, Henrietta Maria of France. 

1634 - The first settlers arrived in the Province of Maryland on two ships, the Ark and the Dove. The ships docked on March 25 in what is now the city of St. Mary's on land inhabited by the Yaocomico people. Two passengers of African descent, including Mathias De Sousa, were aboard.

1649 - Maryland Toleration Act. This act aimed to ensure freedom of religion for Christian settlers in the colony. The law, and the principle of religious liberty that it supported, led many Puritans and Quakers to settle in Maryland.

1656 - Elizabeth Harris, a Society of Friends missionary from London, came to Anne Arundel County. She is believed to be the first Quaker preacher to visit Maryland.

1664 - An Act Concerning Negros & other Slaves. Maryland's first slavery law declared that all Black persons and anyone already deemed a slave, and all of their children, were slaves for life. "By the advice and Consent of the upper and lower house of this present Generall Assembly, ... all Negroes or other slaves already within the Province And all Negroes and other slaves to bee hereafter imported into the Province shall serve Durante Vita."

1672 - George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, visited the Western Shore of Maryland and established the first Quaker meeting at West River, where Johns Hopkins' paternal ancestors were members.

1688 - Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania published the first written protest against slavery in the English colonies.

1717 - A Supplementary Act to the Act relating to Servants and Slaves. This act prohibited Blacks, mulattos, and Native Americans from giving evidence against white residents. The law also prohibited marriage between white women and free Black or mulatto men. 

1752 - An Act to prevent disabled and superannuated Slaves being set free, or the Manumission of Slaves by any last Will or Testament. This act made it illegal for slaveowners to liberate disabled or elderly slaves (50 years of age or older) as well as to free their slaves in their wills. Manumission by property deed, however, was permitted. The law was predicated on the claim that "sundry Persons of this Province have set disabled and superannuated Slaves free who have either perished through Want, or otherwise become a Burthen to others."

1776 - After the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, the Continental Congress published the Declaration of Independence. The war officially ends in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris.

1777/78 - The Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends declared that members who refused to free their enslaved people would be disowned. Quakers throughout Maryland, such as Johns Hopkins' grandfather, began to record deeds in county courts manumitting enslaved adults between the ages of 18 and 50 years old for women and between 21 and 50 for men.

1783 - An Act to prohibit the bringing of slaves into this state. Maryland prohibited the importation of slaves into the state, both from abroad and from other states.

1788 - Maryland became the seventh U.S. state on April 28th. Annapolis was briefly declared the capital of the new country. Preexisting statues regarding slavery and racial discrimination enacted during the colonial period immediately became law in the "new" state of Maryland.

1789 - A bill for the gradual abolition of slavery was rejected by the Maryland Senate. The bill was submitted to the General Assembly by the Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Poor Negroes and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage, which was founded the same year in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins' father Samuel Hopkins and his uncle Gerard T. Hopkins were founding members of the society. 

1790 - The General Assembly voted to permit the manumission of slaves by last will and testament, based on a petition submitted by Quakers. The statute repealed the 1752 act prohibiting manumission by will and also punished masters who failed to provide adequate food, clothing, and shelter for slaves too old or infirm to live on their own. 

1793 - The first Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress, allowing for the capture and return of runaway slaves anywhere within the territory of the United States.

1794 - A Further supplement to an act, entitled, An act to prohibit bringing slaves in to the state. This act allowed persons “with a bona fide intention” of settling within the state to bring their slaves with them. 

1796 - An Act relating to negroes, and to repeal the acts of assembly therein mentioned. This act, a major piece of legislation, had many sections. It denied free Black citizens the right to vote, to serve in public office, and to give evidence against a white person or in any freedom suit. And going forward, freedom suits could only be filed in county courts. Another section of the new law lowered the age of legal manumission to 45.

1801 - Constitutional Amendment of 1801. This amendment restricted to right to vote in Maryland to free white males, "and no other," disenfranchising all free Black citizens. 

1805 - An Act, entitled, An additional supplement to an act, entitled, An act relating to negroes, and to repeal the acts of assembly therein mentioned. This act regulated the Certificate of Freedom system in Maryland. It required that "any negro or negroes, born free, [who] shall wish to travel out of, or leave, the county in which he, she or they, were born, ... shall apply to the clerk of the county ... [for] a certificate of their freedom." The law was predicated on the belief that "great mischiefs have arisen from slaves coming into possession of the certificates of free negroes, by running away and passing as free, under the faith of such certificates." Thus the previous "manner of granting certificates of freedom is not sufficient to prevent the evils felt by slaves coming into possession of such certificates."

1806 - An act to prohibit the emigration of free negroes into this state. The General Assembly passed this act to prohibit the immigration of free blacks and mulattos into Maryland. The act was passed almost simultaneous to a law passed in Virginia requiring free Blacks to leave the state within one year of liberation.

1808 - The Atlantic slave trade was abolished by act of Congress.

1809 - An act to ascertain and declare the condition of such issue as may here-after be born of Negro and Mulatto Female slaves, during their servitude for years, and for other purposes therein mentioned. This act declared that, going forward, all instruments of manumissions, whether by will or deed, must indicate the status of the children of the freed slaves. If not explicitly stated, the child would be judged a slave. 

1815 - Paul Cuffe brought the first group of 38 freed slaves from the United States to Sierra Leone. 

1817 - The Maryland State Colonization Society  was created as an offshoot of the American Colonization Society. In 1834, the MSCS founded a colony called "Maryland in Liberia" on the West African coast.

1817 - A supplement to the act, entitled, an act to prevent the inconveniences arising from slaves being permitted to act as free. This act prohibited slaves from seeking or obtaining employment on their own (a practice known as "living out"). Like many race and slavery laws in Maryland, it was not uniformly enforced. 

1821 - The colony of Liberia south of Sierra Leone was founded by the American Colonization Society.

1831 - Nat Turner Rebellion. Nat Turner, an enslaved man, led a rebellion of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion incited fear among Southern whites of further rebellions and resulted in harsher laws being passed against enslaved people and free Blacks. After the Turner Rebellion, the overall trend of liberalizing manumission in Maryland ceased unless for the purpose of immigrating to Liberia. 

1831 - An act relating to Free Negroes and Slaves. This act prohibited any free negro or mulatto to immigrate to or settle in Maryland and enacted other oppressive laws restricting free Blacks from possessing firearms, enjoying alcoholic beverages, and selling certain goods, among other restrictions.

1831 - An act relating to the People of Color in Maryland State. This act removed age restrictions on manumission in order to advance the colonization of Liberia by free Blacks.

1831 - An act to incorporate the American Colonization Society. The General Assembly of Maryland incorporated the American Colonization Society (ACS) to encourage the settlement of free Blacks in Liberia. 

1832 - An act relating to the people of color in this state.  This act granted the sheriff of the state the right to arrest persons refusing to emigrate from Maryland and further imposed a 50 dollar fine on sheriffs who failed to remove the person of color granted that the Maryland State Colonization Society (MSCS) provided sufficient to pay for the removal. 

1845 - An act to authorize S. Teackle Wallis, to bring into this state, a negro slave therein mentioned. This act allowed S. Teackle Wallis, who later became one of Maryland’s most prominent lawyers and politicians, to bring an enslaved man named Oliver into Maryland. A private bill the same year allowed James T. Pritchett to bring a slave girl named Margaret from Virginia to Maryland. These acts of the General Assembly are examples of the many personal "micro-laws" of slavery in Maryland.

1845 - An act respecting the punishment of Slaves. This act directed that all enslaved people are subject to the same terms of punishment as other persons.

1847 - The 1847 Constitution and Laws of Maryland in Liberia. This constitution was drafted and approved by MSCS, granting it full control of the colony. From 1834 to 1853, the State of Maryland formed and operated the colony called Maryland in Liberia through its agent entity, the MSCS. 

1849 - An act to repeal all laws prohibiting the introduction of slaves into this state. The Maryland General Assembly replaced laws prohibiting the importation of slaves with a new act that only banned the importation of enslaved people who had been banished from other states based on a criminal conviction or for the purpose of selling slaves outside the state. 

1850 - Part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act required that runaway slaves be returned to their owners, even if they resided in a free state. The law, which was a stricter version of the act passed in 1793 (see above), was widely criticized and help galvanize the abolitionist movement. 

1851 - Proceedings and debates of the 1850 Maryland state constitution convention. The 1851 Constitution stated that “The Legislature shall not pass any law abolishing the relation of master or slave, as it now exists in this State."

1860 - An act … prohibiting manumission of negro slaves and authorising free negroes to renounce their freedom and become slaves. Fearing rebellion, the General Assembly banned manumission altogether. Under the law, free blacks above 18 were permitted to reinslave themselves voluntarily. Few took the state up on the offer. 

1861 - The American Civil War began in April after the Battle of Fort Sumter. The first bloodshed of the war occurred when a pro-Southern mob in Baltimore attacked Massachusetts troops on their way to Washington, D.C. The events of the day, known as the Pratt Street Riots, were later recalled by then-Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown.

1863 - Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the secessionist states. The Proclamation did not apply to Maryland, which never joined the Confederacy.

1864 - The Constitution of the State of Maryland 1864 Article 24 regarding the abolition of  Slavery. This new Maryland state constitution abolished slavery within the state, foreshadowing the Thirteenth Amendment.  

1865 - On February 3rd, the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, was adopted by the Maryland General Assembly. The Fourteenth Amendment would not be adopted until 1959 (see article on James Alvin Jones).

1865 - An act to repeal sections … of Article sixty-six of the Code of Public Laws entitled, "Negroes." This act repealed most of the racial laws of the Maryland Code of Public laws. 

1867 - The constitution of the State of Maryland 1867. The 1864 state constitution lasted only three years and was replaced by a new constitution in 1867. The abolition of slavery was reaffirmed, though many delegates called for compensation to slaveholders after emancipation. 

1873 - Johns Hopkins died at his Baltimore city home after a brief illness on Christmas Eve 1873. He donated the bulk of his large fortune to found a university, an orphanage for Black children, and a hospital that he directed to admit patients "without regard to sex, age or color." 

*Qingxi Wang '26, an undergraduate student majoring in International Studies and Economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, contributed to the creation of this page.