The 1854 Territorial Criminal Code
A comprehensive look at the foundational laws of Washington Territory, detailing everything from murder and manslaughter to the prohibition of kidnapping and coerced servitude.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
An Act to define crimes and punishments and proceedings in criminal cases: Section 35: Every person who shall willfully and feloniously take or forcibly and unlawfully carry any person, or convey them without the Territory of Washington, or aid or abet therein, or who shall forcibly and unlawfully take or willfully aid or abet in forcibly and unlawfully taking or arresting any person, with intent to take such person to parts without the said Territory, without having first established a claim upon the services of such person according to the laws of the Territory or the United States, shall be deemed guilty of kidnapping, and upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than fourteen years, nor less than one year, and be fined not more than two thousand dollars, nor less than one hundred dollars.
“Every person who shall forcibly and unlawfully take or willfully aid or abet in forcibly and unlawfully taking or arresting any person, with intent to take such person to parts without the said Territory... shall be deemed guilty of kidnapping.”
This 1854 statute captures the volatile era of the Fugitive Slave Act and the struggle over the status of human beings in the new territory. By explicitly defining 'kidnapping' as moving a person without a legal claim to their service, the law reflects the legal structures of systemic white supremacy that pre-dated the Civil War.
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