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Re: Southern Emancipation/ Pre-Civil War

Constitution of the State of Tennessee, adopted Feb. 6, 1796.

Section 26 of the Bill of Rights "The freemen of this State have a right to keep and bear arms for their common defence." Changed to whites only in 1834.

Art. IV. sec. 1, declares that "every freeman" of age, resident, &c., may vote. This article, just like North Carolina's constitution, was changed to whites only in 1835. "Provided that no person shall be disqualified from voting in any election, on account of color, who is now by the laws of this State a competent witness in a court of justice against a white man. All freemen of color shall be expempt from military duty in time of peace, and also from paying a free poll tax."

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In many cases what is interesting is not what the laws of slave states said, its what they didn't say. Leaving open freedoms to free blacks that are assumed today to have been forbidden when actually there were no laws written making them so.

The Constitution of the State of Mississippi, adopted Aug. 15, 1817 declares..."all freemen, when they form a social compact, are equal in rights," &c., that "all political power is inherent in the people," &c. By some clauses the privileges of private persons are described as rights of the people, in others as "of citizens." In some, "no person shall be," &c. Except for one law that specifically declares race an issue..."The right of suffrage is limited to free white male persons".

No law to prohibit free blacks from being armed or owning businesses in that state is listed. After the early 1830s the immigration of free blacks to Mississippi was the focal point of many laws pertaining to this class, but, restrictions to social life, found in other slave states, did not exist.

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David Upton

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Southern Emancipation/ Pre-Civil War
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Re: Southern Emancipation/Pre-Civil War