January 5, 1804 – Ohio Passes First of Black Laws Restricting Rights and Movement of Free Blacks

On February 19, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson signed an act of Congress approving Ohio’s boundaries and constitution. Only one year later Ohio began to pass “Black Laws” in an attempt to limit Blacks from populating the state.

The first such law, passed on this day in history, required that newly arrived Blacks present certificates of freedom; register with local officials; and levied fines for whites employing African Americans who failed to meet these requirements. The laws were toughened in 1807. In addition to the provisions of 1804, the 1807 law required incoming African Americans to post a sum of five hundred dollars (a huge amount at that time) “conditioned for the good behavior of such negro or mulatto, and moreover, to pay for the support of such person, in case he, she, or they should thereafter be … unable to support themselves.” The 1807 law also prohibited Blacks from giving evidence in a case in which a white person was involved.

Credit: Equal Justice Institute

As Otto Lovett reported in a 1929 thesis on the Black Laws of Ohio, these laws provided “a successful … check … on negro immigration.” He wrote:

An examination of the census reports for Ohio of 1800 and 1810 show a decrease of 31.48% in negro population between these years. More than that the percent of negroes coming to Ohio continued to decrease for the next forty years.”