"AN ACT," December 15, 1840

Summary: This act exempted a family of free blacks from an earlier law forbidding free blacks from living in Texas. Allowed them to stay in Texas as long as they liked.

Concerning certain Free Persons of Color.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, in Congress assembled, That Samuel McCulloch, jr., and his three sisters, to wit:--Jane, Harriet and Mahaly, and their descendants, better known as the free children of Samuel McCulloch, senr., now in the Republic of Texas, together with a free colored girl, known by the name of Ulde or Huldir, a member of said McCulloch's family, be, and the same are hereby from henceforth, exempted from all the provisions of "an act concerning free persons of color," approved fifth of February, one thousand eight hundred and forty.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the aforesaid free persons, be, and hereby from henceforth, are permitted and allowed to continue their residence within the bounds of the Republic of Texas.

DAVID S. KAUFMAN,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

ANSON JONES,

President pro tem. of the Senate.

Approved December 15th, 1840.

DAVID G. BURNET.

Source Copy Consulted: "AN ACT," December 15, 1840, reprinted in H.P.H. Gammel, The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, 12 vols., (Austin: Gammel Book Co., 1898), 2:468-469. http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/lawsoftexas