General Laws of the Seventh Legislature of the State of Texas

Austin: John Marshall & Co., State Printers, 1858. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. pp 284, ix (index), in original sewn wrappers. Rear wrapper and final page of index detached but present, some light staining to front wrapper and lower corner of first 40 pp, not affecting text, otherwise quite clean. Stitching loosening, but holdng. Includes "An Act to Establish the University of Texas, approved on February 11, 1858, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the state's first publicly funded university. Also acts relating to the incorporation and relief of several different railroads; creating the counties of Archer, Mason, Menard, Zapata, Hardin, Hamilton, Kimble, and Buchanan; and "An Act to permit free persons of African descent to select their own master and become slaves," approved on January 27, 1858. Similar acts allowing for voluntary enslavement were passed in Florida and Tennessee the same year. Also noteworthy is a 43-page act supplementing and amending the Texas Penal Code that had been established in 1856, which provides an extensive list of criminal offenses and their statutory punishments, including those for unlawful (i.e, mixed race) marriage, and a number of slavery-related offense. These are divided into those committed by whites (inciting insurrection, illegal transportation of slaves, stealing or enticing a slave, harboring runaways, conducting business with slaves, undue cruelty to and torture of slaves) and those committed by slaves or free persons of color. Winkler 1071.