Thirty-seven residents of Marion County seek to strengthen the law preventing slaves from hiring their own time. The petitioners argue that "nothing is so injurious to the institution of slavery as the loose manner in which some owners maintain their authority and we deem this hiring by Slaves of their own time, either directly or indirectly, as especially demoralizing to the slaves and injurious to other owners of slaves." They assert that the law, which levies a fine of $50 as a penalty, is "ineffectual in remedying the evil." The fine, they assert, is "trifling," and it is very difficult to bring cases to court. The petitioners ask that the penalties be increased and that magistrates “have jurisdiction of such offences,” furnishing them “with a Jury if any Constitutional difficulties intervene."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
