One provided that if the
slave should steal food or clothing because ill-fed or destitute of
apparel, the master should pay for the stolen property.[16] By the
provisions of another, slaves were allowed to give testimony in trials
of other slaves; the jurors, however, had to be "housekeepers" and
"owners of slaves."[17] The beating or abuse of a slave without
sufficient cause (no indication given as to what were the limits of
"sufficient cause") was an indictable offence, and the person
committing a crime of this sort was liable to the same penalties as
for the commission of a similar offense on the body of a white
person.[18]

Various laws of the early codes, 1813, 1819, 1829, restricting the
slave from selling or vending articles under conditions apart from
desire or knowledge of his owner are all evidence of his complete
subjection by law to the will of his master, even in the smallest
things and affairs of personal life, and disposal of belongings. Great
care was taken to state specifically in these early laws that there
should be no sale of liquor or any intoxicant to slaves.[19]

The provisions concerning larger questions of a slave's activity and
privilege are all interesting, and it will be of value to regard,
first of all, that for bringing slaves into the State. Slaves were not
to be brought into Tennessee unless for use, or procured by descent,
devise, or marriage.[20] This enactment was made in 1826, and prepared
the way for far more severe measures later. The idea of all
legislation of this nature argues clearly the discouragement of
slavery as a prevailing institution, by means of preventing fresh
importations for sale. Tennessee was not to be, if it could be
prevented, a slave market, like Mississippi.

A citizen holding slaves might petition the county court and
emancipate a slave. Bond and security were required of the owner, and
the slave thus set at liberty became free to go where he chose
provided that, if he became a pauper, he should be brought to the
county in which he had been set free, and there taken care of at
public expense.[21] But occasionally there would arise a situation
which required special enactment of the legislature as in the
instance of one, Pompey Daniels, a slave, who died before the
emancipation of his two children, Jeremiah and Julius, whom he had
purchased. This required a special act of the legislature, as there
seems to have been no law covering such a case.[22] Years b