Ordinances, decrees, and those with police powers were used to keep enslaved peoples under control. An enslaved person could be locked up for traveling without a proper pass, sent to the jail for "correction" by an owner, or be confined pending a bankruptcy or suit against an owner. Once incarcerated, an enslaved person could be put to work in the city, and the owner would be paid for this work.
A DECREE FOR LOUISIANA ISSUED BY THE BARON OF CARONDELET, JUNE 1, 1795. EDITED BY JAMES A. PADGETT
Any white person, free negroe [sic], or mulatto, who shall enter the negroe [sic] Camps or quarters, without permission of the Proprietor, or sell any thing to slaves at the River side, shall be taken up by the Proprietor of the Plantation, and sent with all his effects, to the Syndic, who will examine his pass, and effects, and condemn him to a fine of Fifteen dollars, which if he cannot pay, he shall suffer Fifteen days confinement in the Prison of the District; where the Syndic will send him at the disposal of the Commandant.
The Syndics shall seize all the Traffic, fire arms, or amunition [sic] they find in possession of the Pedlars [sic], which they shall send to the Commandant, who will confiscate and publickly [sic] sell, the same, and apply the proceeds to the use of the Royal Exchequer, and Fund for defraying the Costs of Justice & Prison fees of the District. .. The Syndics shall from time to time visit by night, or by Day, the different negro quarters, within their Districts, upon finding any slave belonging to other plantations, without a permission from both the masters, they shall have them punished with thirty Lashes; should White persons, free negroes, or Mulattoes, be found there, they shall be sent from Plantation, to Plantation, to the Commandant; who shall punish them with fifteen days imprisonment.
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The Syndics & Commandants are to attend to the conduct of the colored People, and see that they have for the White People, the Deference, & Respect due for them, to the society they once served, and that now has admitted them as members. The Syndics shall, by no means, tolerate any want of respect from them to the White People, but shall immediately send them to the Commandant, who will punish them by imprisonment, but they shall never be flogged, or receive any other corporal punishment.
When a Delinquent is insolvent, he shall be imprisoned, one day for every Dollar he ought to have paid. New Orleans the 1st. June 1795. THE BARON OF CARONDELET.
SEC. 27. The keeper of the county jail, where a runaway slave might be caught, shall pay to the captors, whether free or slave, three dollars for ever slave caught on the highways, &c., and ten dollars for every slave taken in the woods, &c., and delivered to the said jailer, which sum shall be reimbursed by the master of the slave.
SEC. 28, 29. The slaves thus arrested shall be condemned to hard labor by the authorities of the county, &c., they providing for their maintenance, house-room, clothing, and medical attendance; and if after two years, &c., they shall not be reclaimed by their masters, the said slaves shall be sold, &c., and after paying expenses, &c., the balance of the money shall be paid into the public treasury, &c.
A general digest of the ordinances and resolutions of the corporation of New-Orleans. Made by order of the City council, by their secretary, D. Augustin. Printed by J. Bayon, 1831. (See ordinance beginning on page 139)
"The judge in the first instance admits the obvious necessity of providing a place in the city for the confinement and punishment of runaway and offending slaves. It appears also that the provision made by the city ordinances for these objects has had more in view the convenience of the owners of slaves than the increase of the revenues of the city.
And the counsel for the corporation has very properly observed in argument, that if the courts consider the city liable for the value of the slaves sent to the city jail for safe keeping, and who elude the vigilance of the guards, it must cease to receive any more slaves on such conditions."
"[R]unaway slaves shall be advertised, in at least two newspapers, in French and English, during three months successively, and, after that time, once a month during the remainder of the year. They shall be employed and kept at work for the county, by whom clothing, medicine, attendance and maintenance shall be found; but these expenses shall be discharged by the owner, when the negro cannot be usefully employed."
