All slaves sentenced to death or perpetual imprisonment, in virtue of existing laws, shall be paid for out of the public treasury, provided the sum paid shall not exceed three hundred dollars for each slave. The State Treasurer shall pay the owners the value of all slaves whose punishment has been commuted from that of death to that of imprisonment for life. If any slave shall _happen_ to be slain for refusing to surrender him or herself, contrary to law, or in unlawfully resisting any officer, or _other person_, who shall apprehend, or endeavor to apprehend, such slave or slaves, &c., such officer or _other person so killing such slave as aforesaid_, making resistance, shall be, and he is by this act, _indemnified_, from any prosecution for such killing aforesaid, &c. And by the negro act of 1740, of South Carolina, it is declared: If any slave who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white person in company with such slave, shall _refuse to submit_ to undergo the examination of _any white_ person, it shall be lawful for such white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave; and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such slave may be _lawfully killed_!! Transcriber’s Notes: - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - Blank pages have been removed. - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.