Witchcraft in Early North America - Alison Games [98]
IX. And provided also, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in case any slave shall be convicted of having given false information, whereby any other slave may have suffered wrongfully, every such false informer shall be liable to and suffer the same punishment as was inflicted upon the party accused; any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.
X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in case any slave shall teach or instruct another slave in the knowledge of any poisonous root, plant, herb, or other sort of poison whatever, he or she, so offending, shall, upon conviction thereof, suffer death as a felon; and the slave or slaves so taught or instructed, shall suffer such punishment (not extended to life or limb), as shall be adjudged and determined by the justices and freeholders, or a majority of them, before whom such slave or slaves shall be tried.
XI. And to prevent, as much as may be, all slaves from attaining the knowledge of any mineral or vegetable poison, Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall not be lawful for any physician, apothecary or druggist, at any time hereafter, to employ any slave or slaves in the shops or places where they keep their medicines or drugs, under pain of forfeiting the sum of twenty pounds, proclamation money, for every such offence, to be recovered and applied as is hereinafter directed.
XII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no negroes or other slaves (commonly called doctors), shall hereafter be suffered or permitted to administer any medicine, or pretended medicine, to any other slave, but at the instance or by the direction of some white person; and in case any negro or other slave shall offend herein, he shall, upon complaint and proof thereof made to any justice of the peace for the county, suffer corporal punishment, not exceeding fifty stripes.
Source: The Statutes at Large of South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.: Printed by A. S. Johnston, 1836–1841), v. 7, 402, 422–23.
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15. Items about Poisoning from the
South Carolina Gazette, 1749, 1769
The South Carolina Gazette was the colony’s main newspaper. In the absence of any surviving criminal records for enslaved workers, the newspaper remains one of the best sources for getting a glimpse of the punishments visited on slaves for the crime of poisoning and for understanding how white colonists responded to the crime.
October 30, 1749
The horrid Practice of poisoning white People, by the Negroes, has lately become so common, that within a few Days past, several Executions have taken Place in different Parts of the Country, by burning, gibbeting, hanging, &c.
August 1, 1769
On Friday last two Negroes, viz. Dolly belonging to Mr. James Sands, and Liverpoole, belonging to Mr. William Price, were burnt on the Work-house Green, pursuant to the sentence that had been passed on them a fortnight before; the former for poisoning an infant of Mr. Sands’s, which died some time since, and attempting to put her master out of the world the same way; and the latter (a Negro Doctor) for furnishing the means. The wench made a free confession, acknowledging the justice of her punishment, and died a penitent; but the fellow did neither. A mulatto named Dick, formerly a slave to Mr. D’Harriette, but afterwards manumitted, who stands as instigator of these horrid crimes, has disappeared.
August 17, 1769
The Mulatto Fellow Dick, mentioned