Relates to acknowledging that the institution of slavery was an appalling tragedy in the history of this state

Title of bill

An act to amend chapter 137 of the laws of 1817 relating to slaves and servants, in relation to acknowledging the tragedy of slavery in New York state

Purpose

This bill acknowledges the tragedy of slavery in New York State.

Summary of provisions

Section 1. New York State government formally acknowledges and apologizes for the legalization and perpetuation of slavery and the slave trade in New York State.

Justification

For more than two hundred years slavery existed in what became New York State. New York State government not only legalized the enslavement of Africans and their descendants, but also enacted "slave codes," taxes on the sale of enslaved persons and fines payable to the local government or poor house administrators for violations of the "slave codes." Under the leadership of the Federalist Party, the State of New York began to legislate the gradual abolition of slaves in 1799, when a law was passed which provided that all children born to New York slave mothers after July 4, 1799 would not be slaves. However this same law provided that these same children would be required to serve the mother's owner until age 28 for males and age 25 for females. Later, in Chapter 137 of the Laws of 1817, for example, New York State government provided for the gradual emancipation of all enslaved persons by July 4, 1827. This statute however, also provided penalties for harboring an enslaved person or servant, and permitted an enslaved person to be abandoned at age 21 with certification by local government. It was not until 1841, under the leadership of Governor William Seward, one of the founders of the Republican Party, that a loophole in this law, which allowed transients to bring slaves into New York for a nine-month period, and part-time residents to bring slaves into the state temporarily, was closed. Even more egregious was an 1821 law, passed while the State Legislature was controlled by Jeffersonian Democrats, which took away the right of these freed slaves to vote. Governor Seward accurately noted in 1858 that in New York, "the Democratic party deliberately disfranchised the free blacks or African citizen, and it has pertinaciously continued this disfranchisement ever since. This was an effective aid to slavery; for, while the slaveholder votes for his slaves against freedom, the freed slave in the free States is prohibited from voting against slavery".

As the recently held World Conference Against Racism (Durban, South Africa, 2002) proclaimed in its final document, "...slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so...". This bill seeks to have the state, as the government of New York, apologize for New York's role in the enslavement of Africans and their descendants.

Legislative history

2007-08: S.3336-A/A.273-B, passed Assembly; 2005: A.7327.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediately.