Appendix A

THE INDIAN SLAVERY ACT, 1843 Act No. V of 1843

An Act for declaring and amending the Law regarding the condition of Slavery within the territories of the East India Company.

First. ‘It is hereby enacted and declared that no public officer shall in execution of any decree or order of Court or for the enforcement of any demand of rent or revenue, sell or cause to be sold any person on the ground that such person is in a state of slavery.’

Second. ‘And it is hereby declared and enacted that no rights arising out of an alleged property in the person and services of another as a slave shall be enforced by any Civil or Criminal Court or Magistrate within the territories of the East India Company.’

Third. ‘And it is hereby declared and enacted that any person, who may have acquired property by his own industry, or by the exercise of any art, calling or profession or by inheritance, assignment, gift or request shall be dispossessed of such property or prevented from taking possession thereof on the ground that such person or that the person from whom the property may have been derived was a slave.’

Fourth. ‘And it is hereby enacted that any act which would be a penal offence if done to a free man shall be equally an off ence if done to any free person on the pretext of his being in a condition of slavery.’