An Act For The Transportation of Free Persons of Color To Liberia, 1850. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Gwen Hurst gwnj@shentel.net ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** CHAP. 6 -- An ACT making appropriations for the removal of free persons of color, and for other purposes. [Passed March 11, 1850] 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be and the same is hereby appropriated, to be paid annually, for the period of five years, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purposes and in the manner hereinafter prescribed. 2. Be it further enacted, That the governor, lieutenant-governor, firs and second auditors for the time being, shall be and they are hereby constituted a board of commissioners, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act, any two of whom shall be a quorum for said purpose. Whenever satisfactory proof shall be produced to the said board of commissioners, that any number of free persons of color, now free and residents of this state, and their children, shall have been actually transported to the colony at Liberia, or any other place on the western coast of Africa, or that they shall have been embarked for transportation thither, from within the limits of this commonwealth, by the American Constitution society, it shall be lawful, and the said board of commissioners are hereby required, to issue their warrant on the treasury of this commonwealth for such sum or sums of money as may be necessary to defray the cost of transporting and subsisting such free persons of color for a limited time on the said coast of Africa, payable to the authorized and accredited agent or agents of the said American Colonization society: Provided That the sum or sums which may from time to time be thus expended shall in no one year exceed the amount hereby appropriated for such year: And provided further, That not more than the sum of twenty-five dollars shall be allowed by said board of commissioners for the transportation and subsistence as aforesaid of any free person of color about the age of ten years, and not more than the sum of fifteen dollars for the transportation and subsistence of any free person of color under the said age of ten years; and the said board of commissioners are hereby required to keep an exact account of all moneys distributed under the authority of this act, and to make an annual report thereof to the general assembly, shewing the ages and sex of each free persons of color as may be transported from this commonwealth, and the counties, cities or boroughs from which they may have been respectively removed, together with such other facts or suggestions as they my deem interesting or proper. 2. [sic] Be it further enacted, That the board of commissioners constituted under the second section may, at their discretion employ the agency of the Virginia Colonization society to effect the objects contemplated in this act. 3. Be it further enacted, That an annual tax of one dollar shall be and the same is hereby levied upon every male free negro of the age of twenty-one years and under fifty-five years, to be ascertained and assessed on each by the commissioner of the revenue in every year and collected by the sheriff or other collector of the public revenue as other public taxes or levies upon free negroes are collected. All such taxes shall be accounted for with the auditor in the present year and every year hereafter, and paid into the treasury as other public taxes. And an account thereof shall be raised on the books of the auditor and treasurer. The fund arising from this source shall be applied to the removal of free negroes from this commonwealth, in the manner prescribed in the foregoing sections of this act, and in addition to the appropriation therein made, or in such manner as the legislature may at any time prescribe. And it shall be the duty of the county and corporation courts to charge the legal tax for the seal of court and attestation of every copy of registration delivered by them to any free negro, and to account with the auditor of public accounts for such tax, and pay the same into the treasury as other taxes on law process, except that they shall designate the same so as to enable the auditor and treasurer to enter all such moneys to the account directed to be raised in the preceding part of this section; and that the same shall be applied to the object thereof. 4. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of every free negro so taxed and assessable, as well to report himself to the commissioner of the revenue as for the commissioner to call on him. 5. This act shall be in force from its passage. Commonwealth of Virginia. 1850 Acts Of the General Assembly Of Virginia, Passed At The Extra And Regular Sessions In 1849 & 1850, And In The Seventy-Third And Seventy-Fourth Years Of The Commonwealth. William F. Ritchie, Public Printer, Richmond, Virginia (pages 7-8).