nty-five lashes unless his master paid a fine
for him instead.[12]

[Footnote 12: D. Augustin, _A General Digest of the Ordinances and
Resolutions of the Corporation of New Orleans_ ([New Orleans], 1831), pp.
133-137.]

At Richmond an ordinance effective in 1859 had provisions much like those
of New Orleans regarding residence, clamor, canes, assemblage and demeanor,
and also debarred slaves from the capitol square and other specified public
enclosures unless in attendance on white persons or on proper errands,
forbade them to ride in public hacks without the written consent of their
masters, or to administer medicine to any persons except at their masters'
residences and with the masters' consent. It further forbade all negroes,
whether bond or free, to possess offensive weapons or ammunition, to form
secret societies, or to loiter on the streets near their churches more than
half an hour after the conclusion of services; and it required them when
meeting, overtaking or being overtaken by white persons on the sidewalks to
pass on the outside, stepping off the walk if necessary to allow the whites
to pass. It also forbade all free persons to hire slaves to themselves, to
rent houses, rooms or grounds to them, to sell them liquors by retail, or
drugs without written permits from their masters, or to furnish offensive
weapons to negroes whether bond or free. Finally, it forbade anyone to beat
a slave unlawfully, under fine of not more than twenty dollars if a white
person, or of lashes or fine at the magistrate's discretion in case the
offender were a free person of color.[13]

[Footnote 13: _The Charters and Ordinances of the City of Richmond_
(Richmond, 1859), pp. 193-200.]

Of rural ordinances, one adopted by the parish of West Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, in 1828 was concerned only with the organization and functions
of the citizens' patrol. As many chiefs of patrol were to be appointed
as the parish authorities might think proper, each to be in charge of a
specified district, with duties of listing all citizens liable to patrol
service, dividing them into proper details and appointing a commander for
each squad. Every commander in his turn, upon receiving notice from his
chief, was to cover the local beat on the night appointed, searching slave
quarters, though with as little disturbance as possible to the inmates,
arresting any free negroes or strange whites found where they had no proper
authority or business to be,