offensive or defensive, thirty-nine lashes by order of a justice; and
in some States, twenty lashes from the nearest constable, _without_ a
conviction by the justice.

For selling any article, without a specific ticket from his master, ten
lashes by the captain of the patrollers,[R] or thirty-nine by order of
a magistrate. The same punishment for being at any assembly deemed
_unlawful_.

[Footnote R: The patrols are very generally low and dissipated
characters, and the cruelties which negroes suffer from them, while in
a state of intoxication, are sometimes shocking. The law endows these
men with very great power.]

For travelling by himself from his master's land to any other place,
unless by the most accustomed road, forty lashes; the same for
travelling in the night without a pass; the same for being found in
another negro's kitchen, or quarters; and every negro found _in company_
with such vagrant, receives twenty lashes.

For hunting with dogs, even in the woods of his master, thirty lashes.

For running away and lurking in swamps, a negro may be lawfully _killed_
by any person. If a slave _happen_ to die of _moderate_ correction, it
is likewise justifiable homicide.

For endeavoring to entice another slave to run away, if provisions are
prepared, the slave is punished with DEATH; and any negro aiding or
abetting suffers DEATH.

Thirty-nine stripes for harboring a runaway slave one hour.

For disobeying orders, imprisonment as long as the master chooses.

For riding on horseback, without written permission, or for keeping a
dog, twenty-five lashes.

For rambling, riding, or going abroad in the night, or riding horses in
the day without leave, a slave may be whipped, cropped, or branded on
the cheek with the letter R, or otherwise punished, not extending to
life, nor _so as to unfit him for labor_.

For beating the Patuxent river, to catch fish, ten lashes; for placing a
seine across Transquakin and Chickwiccimo creeks, thirty-nine lashes by
order of a justice.

For advising the murder of a person, one hundred lashes may be given.

A runaway slave may be put into jail, and the jailer must forthwith send
a letter by mail, to the man whom the negro says is his owner. If an
answer does not arrive at the proper time, the jailer must inflict
twenty-five lashes, well laid on, and interrogate anew. If the slave's
second statement be not corroborated by the letter from the owner,
twenty-five lashes are agai