'Act regulating Black and Mulatto Persons' amendment   Save
Enrolled Bills, 1st-115th, 118th, and 121st-129th Sessions, General Assembly.
Description: This act is one of a series of Black Laws passed by the Ohio General Assembly beginning in 1804, titled "Act to Amend the Act Entitled "An Act Regulating Black and Mulatto Persons." It required all black and mulatto settlers to register with the county clerk of courts and post a $500 bond in order to settle in any county in the state of Ohio. Registration was to be completed within 20 days of entering the county. Non-compliance with this law would result in a person being treated as a pauper, with immediate removal by the township’s overseer of the poor. Those who harbored or employed unregistered black or mulatto settlers were fined up to $100 and were responsible for the settler's good conduct. The act also restricted black settlers from giving sworn testimony in any court in the state in either defense of or in prosecution of a white resident. Ohio’s Black Laws were eventually repealed by 1849. The act was signed by Abraham Shepherd, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3336_022
Subjects: Ohio General Assembly House of Representatives; Ohio General Assembly Senate; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; African Americans--Civil rights--Ohio; Segregation--Laws and legislation
Places: Ohio