Three South Carolina merchant shippers seek the repeal of the 1841 law "entitled 'an act to prevent the citizens of New York from carrying Slaves or persons held to service out of this State and to prevent the escape of persons charged with the commission of any crime.'" Expounding on the principles of free trade, they "are and always have been under the conviction, that the act in question is in violation of the constitution of the United States." Describing the law as extreme and oppressive, they cite that it requires that inspectors come aboard ships and that ship owners pay inspectors a ten-dollar boarding fee; the cost to them alone is about nineteen hundred dollars. In addition, the petitioners assert that said law requires ship owners who have a slave or person charged with a crime on board to pay a fine of five hundred dollars, no matter "how innocent and ignorant the Captain Owners, and all concerned may be."
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
