TYPE	YEAR	LAWS/CODES	DESCRIPTION
Slavery outlawed	1777	Constitution	Prohibited adult slavery. However, slavery existed in some parts of the State until the 1780s.
Slave trade	1779	Statute	Prohibited the sale of enslaved persons outside the State against their will.
Shipping/slave trade	1787	Statute	Prohibited ships from engaging in the slave trade, with a fine of 1,000 pounds per ship. This law could be easily avoided, however, by registering the ship in another state.
Enslavement	1791	Constitution	No person could be a servant or slave after the age of 21 unless by his own consent or in payment of debt or fines.
Slave trade	1792	Statute	Legislature passed "an Act to prohibit the Importation of Slaves from Africa, or other places beyond the sea, into this state, for two years."
Slave trade	1800	Statute	It was illegal to bring in slaves from offshore, and no one could bring in more than ten slaves from anywhere in the nation.
Fugitive slaves	1840	Statute	It instituted trial by jury to defend fugitive slaves. Law was repealed in 1843 but renewed in 1850.
Fugitive slaves	1843	Statute	A "personal liberty" law prohibited state officials from aiding the recapture of fugitive slaves and carried penalties up to $1,000 in fines and up to five years imprisonment.
Kidnapping	1854	Statute	It was illegal to kidnap a free person with an attempt to remove him from the State as a slave.
Citizenship	1858	Statute	Declared that African descent did not disqualify blacks from citizenship in the State. Freed any black who entered the State, with or without permission of his master, and made holding another person as a slave punishable by 1-15 years in prison and fines up to $2,000.