Today in our History – March 29, 1804 - The state of Ohio initiated - “Black Laws” were enacted in the state of Ohio.

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion event The Ohio legislature passed a series of laws in 1807 to discourage African American migration to the state.

Although slavery was not allowed in Ohio as part of the Constitution of 1803, most African Americans were not treated as equals to white people in the new state. Many Ohioans had come from Southern states that allowed slavery and were not willing to grant rights to African Americans. Other Ohioans were concerned about economic competition from free blacks who might choose to move to the state. As a result of these sentiments, as early as 1804, Ohio legislators had implemented black laws. The 1807 laws were a continuation of these earlier laws.

Among other provisions, these laws required black people to prove that they were not slaves and to find at least two people who would guarantee a surety of five hundred dollars for the African Americans' good behavior. The laws also limited African Americans' rights to marry whites and to gun-ownership, as well as to several other freedoms that whites held. The Black Laws and other policies deterred some African Americans from settling in Ohio.

In the late 1840s, the Black Laws became a political issue once again. Members of the Free Soil Party pushed to have the laws repealed and were partially successful in doing so in 1849. The changes in the laws were accomplished in part because Ohio Democrats backed the Black Laws' repeal in exchange for Free Soil Party support of their candidates in the state legislature.

Today in our History – March 29, 1804 - The state of Ohio initiated -  “Black Laws” were enacted in the state of Ohio. The Congress of the Buckeye state became the first legislative body in the country to enact Black Laws, intended to restrict the rights of free blacks.

Two groups supported the measure: white settlers from Kentucky and Virginia, and a growing group of businessmen who had ties to southern slavery. All of them despised blacks. The legislation forced blacks and mulattoes to furnish certificates of freedom from a court in the United States before they could settle in Ohio. All black residents had to register with the names of their children by June 1, 1805. The registration fee was 12 and a half cents per name.

It became a punishable offense to employ a black person who could not present a certificate of freedom. Anyone harboring or helping fugitive slaves was fined $1,000, with the informer receiving half of the fine. On January 25, 1807, these laws were toughened and other states followed Ohio’s lead. The Black Laws remained in effect until 1849.

The BLACK LAWS were a series of early 19th-century restrictions on Cleveland's black citizens imposed by the Ohio state constitution of 1802 and by state law. Growing antislavery sentiment in the WESTERN RESERVE caused most of these laws to be repealed before the Civil War. Like other Northwest Territory states, Ohio was influenced by southern attitudes toward race. Though slavery was not permitted, Ohio blacks (see AFRICAN AMERICANS) could not vote, testify in court against whites, hold office, or serve in the state militia (see BLACK MILITARY UNITS). Further legislation required blacks to file a $500 bond before settling in the state and to register their certificates of freedom in the county clerk's office before getting a job, and barred them from serving jury duty. Blacks were not permitted in the public school system until 1848 when a law was passed that permitted communities to establish segregated schools.

While certificate and bond filing were loosely enforced, other laws were at first strictly followed in Cleveland, as well as the rest of Ohio. By the 1830s, however, as the Western Reserve became a hotbed of reform and ABOLITIONISM, local attitudes shifted. Cleveland and other northeastern Ohio towns became stopping points on the Underground Railroad to Canada. While this activism hardly signified universal acceptance of racial equality, by 1838 the CUYAHOGA COUNTY ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY pressured legislators to promote repeal of the black laws. Within 12 years that was accomplished through area Free-Soil legislators. Cuyahoga County delegates blocked antiblack provisions from the 1851 constitution and in 1867 promoted Negro suffrage, which was defeated by Ohio voters. Research more about this great American tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!