On January 17, 1834, the Alabama State Legislature passed Act 44 as part of a series of increasingly restrictive laws governing the behavior of free and enslaved Black people, which prohibited Black people from being freed within the state and authorized re-enslavement of any free Black person who entered the state.
In the immediate aftermath of the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia, Alabama passed a statute in 1833 that made it unlawful for free Black people to settle in Alabama. That statute provided that freed Black people found in Alabama would be given 30 days to vacate the state. After 30 days, they could be subject to a penalty of 39 lashes and receive an additional 20-day period to leave the state. After that period had expired, the free person could be sold back into slavery with proceeds of the sale going to the state and those who participated in apprehending him or her.
In 1834, Act 44 expanded on this legislation by specifying a series of procedures that had to be followed for an enslaved Black person to be freed within the state. For one, the law required that the emancipation of an enslaved person could only take effect outside of Alabama’s borders. Further, if an emancipated Black person returned to Alabama after being freed, he or she could be lawfully captured and sold back into slavery. In fact, Act 44 required sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to actively attempt to apprehend freedmen and freedwomen who entered Alabama for any reason—rendering all free Black people within the state vulnerable to kidnapping and enslavement with no legal protection.
