8 August 1729
Maryland authorizes dismemberment and public display after capital convictions
Colonial Maryland
Maryland’s 1729 act authorized judges to sentence Black people and other enslaved people convicted of petit treason, murder or deliberately burning dwellings to hand amputation, hanging, decapitation and quartering, with public display of the remains. Its preamble used racist claims to justify punishment beyond the usual English execution.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
This is the 1729 act, separate from Maryland’s 1723 patrol law. The penalty followed conviction by confession or jury verdict and was authorized, not mandated in every case. The separate storehouse-theft clause applied to any person and required stolen goods worth five shillings; it did not prescribe quartering.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 35; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Maryland, 1729 chapter IV, passed 8 August; Thomas Bacon, Laws of Maryland, p. 383 (scan checked) ↗
- 1729 session law, chapter IV; Archives of Maryland 36:454–455 ↗