Citation
Act to Prevent Kidnapping, March 27, 1820, FULL TEXT via Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, PA: C. Gleim, 1820), 104-106
Excerpt
Abolitionist cartoon depicting the kidnapping of a free Black resident (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Sec. 1. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That if any person or persons shall from and after the passing of this act, by force or violence take and. carry away, or shall by fraud or kidnapping false pretences seduce or cause to be seduced, or shall attempt so to take, carry away or seduce any negro or mulatto from any part or parts of this Commonwealth, to any other place or places whatsoever, out of this Commonwealth, with a design and intention of selling and disposing of, or of causing to be sold, or of keeping and detaining, or of causing to be kept and detained, such negro or mulatto as a slave or servant for a year or years, every such person or persons, his or their aiders and abettors, shall on conviction thereof in any court of this Commonwealth having competent jurisdiction, be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall forfeit and pay at the discretion of the court passing the sentence, any sum not less than five hundred dollars, nor more than two thousand dollars, one half whereof shall be paid to the person or persons who shall prosecute for the same, and the other half to this Commonwealth, and moreover shall be sentenced to undergo a servitude for any term or time not less than seven years, nor exceeding twenty-one years, and shall be confined, kept to hard labor, fed and clothed in manner as is directed by the penal law of this Commonwealth for persons convicted of robbery.