[BOBT12]

Originally Posted by Lawdog

While it may be true that, in the early days of the republic, slaves could carry guns if their masters allowed them to, after Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831, in which a fair number of whites were killed, laws were passed in many states and counties that made arming slaves illegal. In fact, many places made it illegal merely to teach slaves to READ. So my comment was directed at the 30 years between Nat Turner's rebellion and the Civil War.

Again, there seems to be some exceptions. Although, you may be correct on the slave issue.

Other decisions during the antebellum period were unambiguous about the importance of race. In State v. Huntly (1843), the North Carolina supreme Court had recognized that there was a right to carry arms guaranteed under the North Carolina Constitution, as long as such arms were carried in a manner not likely to frighten people. 12 The following year, the North Carolina supreme Court made one of those decisions whose full significance would not appear until after the Civil War and passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. An 1840 statute provided: “That if any free negro, mulatto, or free person of color, shall wear or carry about his or her person, or keep in his or her house, any shot gun, musket, rifle, pistol, sword, dagger or bowie-knife, unless he or she shall have obtained a license therefore from the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of his or her county, within one year preceding the wearing, keeping or carrying therefore, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be indicted therefore.” 13 --State v. Newsom, 5 Iredell 181, 27 N.C. 250 (1844).