Colonial Deleware
*The 'For the Trial of Negroes' Act was passed on this date in 1700. This colonial law was passed to socialize and control Black Africans in Delaware. This policy marked 150 years of discriminatory legislation to preserve chattel slavery in America.
Blacks received more severe penalties than whites for crimes; they couldn't carry weapons or assemble in large numbers and were subject to special court procedures. Later, laws placed even greater restrictions on Blacks by prohibiting voting, holding office, giving legal evidence against whites, and banning mixed marriages. Before the American Revolution, so many enslaved people resided in the colony that whites feared an insurrection.
The General Assembly passed an act in 1773 raising the duty to 20 pounds for bringing an individual enslaved person into the Lower counties, explaining that numerous plots and insurrections in mainland America had resulted in the murders of several whites.
