Balanta and the Banking System: A Case Study of the Criminal Application of Fictitious Corporate Statutory Law

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Our study of the legal issues concerning the Balanta people has revealed that The English, Portuguese and Spanish Christian rulers, from the 13th century up to the present, violated natural law by contriving new forms of personhood called “corporations” subject to fictitious corporate or statutory laws while at the same time designating some groups, including the Balanta and other people taken from their homelands in Africa, as corporate-less beings with no protective shield of a culturally sanctioned corporate status. The objective of these “corporations” is to make profits from the labor of the Balanta and these other peoples. The following articles detail this development:

ON QUESTIONS OF RACE, ETHNICITY AND NATIONALITY

SUMMARY OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

ORIGIN OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES

DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL ISSUES DURING THE BALANTA MIGRATION PERIOD

LEGAL ISSUES EFFECTING BALANTA AS A RESULT OF CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN CHRISTIANS

LEGAL ISSUES EFFECTING BALANTA AS A RESULT OF CONTACT WITH THE ENGLISH

Timeline of American History And The Birth of White Supremacy and White Privilege in America

DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

We are now going to see how these fictitious corporate or statutory laws are used to oppress and steal from the Balanta people in the United States through the corporate banking system. The following is an excerpt from the book, Meet Your Strawman: And Whatever You Want to Know:

WHAT IS MONEY?

Originally, in England, the unit of money was called “one pound sterling”. That was because it was literally, sterling silver weighing one pound. As it was quite difficult to carry several pounds weight of currency around with you, it was arranged that the actual silver could be held in a bank and a promissory note which was essentially, a receipt for the deposit of each pound of silver on deposit, was issued. It was much easier to carry these “bank notes” around and to do business with them. If you wanted to, you could always take these notes to a bank and ask for them to be cashed, and the bank would hand you the equivalent weight of sterling in exchange for the notes.

Today, the currency in America is “bank notes” which are certainly easier to carry around than metal coins, bu there is one very important difference. These notes are issued by the private company called “The Federal Reserve Bank” (which is a s good a name for a company as any other name). However, if you were to take one of their bank notes to a branch of that company and ask for it to be cashed, all that they would do is give you another not with the same numbers of credit printed on it, or alternatively, other notes with smaller numbers printed on them. This is because, unlike the original bank notes, there is nothing of any physical value backing up the bank notes of today - they are only materially worth the physical paper on which they are printed.

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It actually gets worse than that. What happens most commonly nowadays is that they do not even bother printing those pieces of paper. Now, they just tap some numbers into a computer record, or if they are old-fashioned enough, they write the numbers into a ledger by hand. What do those numbers represent? Nothing at all - they have no actual value, in other words, just as much value as if you typed them into your own computer - quite meaningless - and yet, a bank or other financial institution will merrily “lend” you those numbers in return for years of your work, plus interest charges - now isn’t that really generous of them?

Actually, this is not at all funny, because if you don’t keep paying them money earned by your very real work, they will attempt to take your house and possessions away from you. This wont happen if you understand that what they lent you was actually valueless. Take the case of Jerome Daly of Minnesota in America. In court, Jerome challenged the right of the bank to foreclose on his home which had been purchased with a loan from the bank. Jerome argued that any mortgage contract required that both parties (that is, himself and the bank) put up a legitimate form of property for the exchange. In legal language, that is called a legitimate “consideration” put forward by both parties to the contract.

Jerome explained that the “money” was in fact not the property of the bank as it had been created out of nothing as soon as the loan agreement was signed. That is, the money does not come out of the bank’s existing assets as the bank is simply inventing it, and in reality the bank is putting up nothing of its own, except for a fictional liability on paper. As the court case progressed, the President of the Bank, Mr. Morgan, took the stand and admitted that the bank, in combination with the (privately owned commercial company called) “The Federal Reserve Bank”, created the entire amount of the loan in “credit” in its own books by means of a bookkeeping entry, the money and credit coming into existence when they created it. Further, Mr. Morgan admitted that no United States Law or Statute exists which gives him the right to do this. A lawful consideration must exist and must be tendered to support the loan agreement. The jury found that there had been no lawful consideration put forward by the bank, so the court rejected the bank’s application for foreclosure and Jerome Daly kept his home debt free.

That is exactly the situation with all American mortgages. When someone makes an application for a mortgage or any other loan, the applicant’s signature is required on the application form before the loan is approved. The “signature” on that signed application makes it a valuable piece of paper which the bank can deposit in its accounts as a credit to the bank for the amount of the loan. The bank could just keep that application form and stay ahead by $100,000 or whatever, but they want more, much more. They want the borrower to pay them that same amount again, funding it by years of labor, and not only the amount of the supposed “loan” but significant extra amount in interest as well. Why do you think that they are so keen to lend you “money” - they are even willing to lend to people with very poor credit, as there is no way that the bank can lose out on the deal, no matter what happens.

This is why, if a company starts demanding payment of large sums of money, you start by asking them to provide the “accounting” for the deal. In other words, you are asking them to show in writing that they provided something of genuine worth as their side of the loan contract. As they invented the money as numbers in their books, with no real worth attached to those numbers, they are in deep trouble as they can’t comply with your demand to see their accounting for the deal. Did you ever wonder how the average bank manages to make hundreds of millions of dollars profit every year?

THE BOOKKEEPING

This next part of the information may be a little difficult to understand. When any business is being run, the accounts are recorded as money “coming in” and money “going out”. For a bank, the money coming in is called a “Credit” and money going out is called a “Debit”. The objective is to have these two amounts always match each other (balance) for any customer. Not everything done in banking is immediately obvious to the average person, so it may be a little difficult to understand how everything works in this area.

If you have an account with a bank and you deposit $200 to open the account, the bank enters that in its books as a Credit. The Credit on your account is $200 and the Debit is $0 so the balance has a positive, or Credit, value of $200.

If you were to withdraw $300, then the bank would record this as a Debit of $300. When the Credit balance on your account is $200, the balance on your account would be $100 in Debit, that is, overdrawn by $100.

If you were to deposit a further $100 and then close your account, the bank would not have any problem, other than the fact that they would like to keep you on as a customer.\

As far as the accounting goes, your account is balanced and the bank is satisfied with the state of affairs, $300 has come in and $300 has gone out, the books balance -case closed.

Now, if you were to apply for a loan (mortgage or otherwise) for $100,000 from the bank, they would give you an application form which is set out in such a way that you have to fill in the Strawman’s name rather than your own - separate boxes with one of them containing “Mr.” and they may even require you to fill the form in using block capital letters.

You may think the capital letters are so that they can read your writing or perhaps, to make it easier for it to be entered into a computer, but the name in those capital letters belongs to the Strawman and not you. You have actually made an application on behalf of the Strawman and not on behalf of yourself!

You might wonder why they would want you to do this. After all, what could they ever get from the Strawman? Well, you might be surprised. When the Strawman was incorporated they assigned a large monetary value to it, possibly $100,000,000 and they have been trading on the stock market on behalf of the Strawman ever since, and you know how many years that has been. So, very surprisingly, in their opinion, the little fellow is really very rich, and you have just authorized them to take the amount of your loan application from the Strawman’s account. So before the bank passes you any money, it has already gotten its money from the Strawman account and entered it in its books as a $100,000 Credit to your loan account. They then place the $100,000 into your loan account as a Debit. Interestingly, that loan account is now balanced and could easily be closed off as a completed deal.

This is where the sneaky part comes in. To get the money out of your account, you have to write and sign a check for $100, 000 on that account. What does the bank do with checks which you sign? It assigns them to the account as an asset of the bank, and suddenly, the bank is ahead by $100,000 because the check is in the name of the Strawman who can supply the bank with almost any amount of money. But it doesn’t end there, as the bank is confident that you know so little about what is going on that you will pay them anything up to $100,000 over the years, against what you believe you owe them! If that happens, then they have made yet another $100,000 for the bank. To make things even better for them, they want you to pay them interest on the money which you (don’t actually) owe them. Overall, they make a great deal of money when you borrow from them, so perhaps you can see now why banks make hundreds of millions in profit each year.

If the loan were used to buy a property, then the bank probably insisted that you assign the title deeds to them as collateral for the loan, as soon as the property deal closed (was completed). If you then fail to keep paying them, they are likely to attempt to foreclose on the “loan” and sell your property quickly for an even greater profit. And to add insult to injury, if the property sale did not exceed the amount of the “loan” plus the charges for selling it, then they are likely to claim that you owe them the difference!

Perhaps you can now see why Jerome Daly told them to go take a running jump at themselves, and why your request for “the accounting” for any loan made to you, puts the bank in an impossible situation. If the bank then just writes and tells you that the “debt” is fully discharged, they still have made a massive profit on the operation, and they also hope that the vast majority of their customers will not catch on to the fact that they are paying far too much for their property, or even that there is a Strawman involved.

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https://www.slideshare.net/SurbhiJindal3/federal-reserve-bank

Please don’t feel that you are ripping off the banks if you don’t pay them what they are asking you to pay - they have already recovered everything paid out before you start paying them for the second or third time.

When it is a Mortgage the entire process is very much the same. . . . [Here] is typical property sale and mortgage:

The buyer goes to Magic Bank in response to the bank’s claim that it is in the business of lending money in accordance with its corporate charter. The buyer went to the bank believing that Magic Bank had the asset (money) to lend. Magic Bank never tells its customers the truth that it does not have any money to lend, nor that Magic Bank is not permitted to use their depositors’ money to lend to its borrowers.

Notwithstanding the fact that Magic Bank does not have any money to lend, Magic Bank makes the buyer/borrower sing a mortgage loan application form which is essentially a promissory note saying that the buyer/borrower promises to pay Magic Bank for the money (what money?) which he is supposed to receive from Magic Bank even before any value or consideration is received by the buyer/borrower from Magic Bank. The buyer actually paid for the property using his own promissory note.

At this point, the seller has not received any money or cash so Magic Bank and its magicians must perform more magic in order to satisfy the seller’s requirement that he get paid, or the whole deal is null and void. The seller does not even know that the property has been magically conveyed to the buyer’s name in order for the seller to receive any money.

The ensuing magic trick is accomplished this way. The buyer is made to sign another promissory note. The mortgage contract is attached to the promissory note which makes the buyer liable to pay Magic Bank for the money or the loan which the buyer has not yet or may never receive for up to twenty five years or more depending on the term of the mortgage contract. This note is linked to the collateral thorugh the mortgage contract as such, it is valuable to Magic Bank.

Magic Bank then goes to the Federal Reserve Bank or to another bank to pledge the deal that they have just gotten from the buyer for credit. The Federal Reserve Bank then gives Magic Bank the “credit”. Remember, it is not Magic Bank’s credit, it is the buyer’s credit who promised to pay Magic Bank if and when the money is received by the buyer from Magic Bank payable for up to 25 years or more.

Note: What happened above is basically a “swap” transaction all banks do to “monetize” security. In this case, the second promissory note that is linked to the mortgage contract and signed by the buyer is a mortgage-backed security.

Magic Bank will then agree to pay the Federal Reserve Bank a certain percentage of interest over “prime”. Thus the buyer’s loan package goes to the Federal Reserve Bank which credits Magic Bank with the full amount of credit which is the total amount of the principal plus all the interest payments the buyer has promised to pay to Magic Bank for 25 years or more which is usually three times the amount of the money promised by Magic Bank to the buyer. By magic, Magic Bank just enriched itself and got paid in advance, without using or risking its own money.

Magic Bank’s magician, the lawyer who holds the check that is backed by the buyer’s promissory note, then writes a check to the seller as payment for the property. In effect, the buyer paid the seller with his own money by virtue of the fact that it was the buyer’s own money (the promissory note) that made the purchase of the sale possible. Magic Bank just mad a cool 300% profit without using or risking any capital of its own.

Neither was there any depositor’s money deducted from Magic Bank’s asset account in this transaction.

What really happened was pure deception and if we the people tried to do this, we would end up in prison being found guilty of fraud and criminal conversion not to mention that the property would have been seized by the court.

This is only a crime if we, the people, do it to each other as it would be an indictable crime if we issued a check with no funds. There would not be any deal, no purchase and sale agreement because there is no valuable consideration. In order to de-criminalize the transaction, we need Magic Bank and their cohorts to make the deal happen. It is really a conspiracy of sorts but these “person"s” , the banks, the lawyers, the land title offices or eve the courts do not consider the transaction as fraudulent transactions because these transactions happen all the time.

Such a contract is “void ab initio” or “void from the beginning” which means that the contract never took place in the first place. Moreover, the good faith and fair dealing requirements through full disclosure is non-existent which further voids the contract.

Magic Bank failed to disclose to the buyer that it will not be giving the buyer any valuable consideration and taking interest back as additional benefit to unjustly enrich the corporation. Magic Bank also failed to disclose how much profit they are going to make on the deal.

Magic Bank led the buyer to believe that the money going to the seller would be coming from its own asset account. They lied because they knew, or ought to have known, that their own book or ledger would show that Magic Bank does not have any money to lend and that their records will show that no such loan transaction ever took place. Their own book will show that there would be no debits from Magic Bank’s asset account at all and all that would show up are the two entries made when the buyer gave Magic Bank the first collateral or the promissory note which enabled Magic Bank to cut a check which made it possible to convey the property from seller to the buyer free and clear of all liens or encumbrances as required by the agreement of purchase and sale entered into in writing between the buyer and the seller. What really happened was not magic; in reality, the buyer’s promissory note was used by Magic Bank and its magicians - the lawyers and land title clerks - to convey free title to the buyer from the seller. So why do we need the mortgage contract at all?

The other entry that would show up when we audit Magic Bank’s accounts, is the other pledge of collateral including the buyer’s promissory note which was converted (unlawfully and without disclosure or permission from the buyer) into a mortgage-backed security which was “swapped” or deposited by Magic Bank to the Federal Reserve Bank for which another deposit was entered into Magic Bank’s transaction account. From the above, we can list all the criminal acts perpetrated by Magic Bank:

  1. The mortgage contract was “void ab-initio” because Magic Bank lied and never intended to lend a single cent of their own asset or depositor’s money to the buyer.

  2. A valid contract must have lawful or valuable consideration. the contract failed for anticipated breach. Magic Bank never planned to give the buyer/borrower any valuable consideration.

  3. Magic Bank breached all its fiduciary duties to the buyer and is therefore guilty of criminal breach of trust by failing in its good faith requirement.

  4. Magic Bank concealed the fact from the buyer that it would be using the buyer’s promissory notes; first to clear all the liens and encumbrances in order to convey clear title to the buyer and then use the second promissory note to obtain more money from the Federal Reserve Bank or other institutions that buy and sell mortgage-backed security. Magic Bank received up to three times the amount of money required to purchase the property and kept the proceeds to itself without telling the buyer.

  5. Magic Bank violated its corporate charter by lending “credit” or “nothing at all” to the buyer and then charging interest on this make-believe loan. Banks are only licensed to lend their own money, not other people’s money. Magic Bank used the buyer’s promissory note to clear the title which essentially purchased the property from the seller. The transaction is ‘An ultra vires” transaction because Magic Bank has engaged in a contract “outside of it’s lawful mandate.” An ultra vires contract is void or voidable because it is non-existent in law.

  6. Everyone involved in this undertaking with Magic Bank, starting with the loan or mortgage officer, the lawyers, the land title office and even the central bank are equally guilty by association by aiding and abetting Magic Bank in its commission of its crimes against the buyer and the people who would eventually have to absorb all of the loss through increased taxes, etc.

In the final analysis, Magic Bank and the other who profited from the ultra vires transaction are all guilty of unjust enrichment and fraud for deceiving the buyer and the people, and for acting in concert in this joint endeavor to deceive the buyer.

From Shaun Walker’s petition to the U.S. House of Representatives

“Let's abolish the federal reserve and save Humanity from slavery.

 Now that we know the Federal Reserve is a privately owned, for-profit corporation, a natural question would be: who OWNS this company? Peter Kershaw provides the answer in "Economic Solutions" where he lists the ten primary shareholders in the Federal Reserve banking system. 

1) The Rothschild Family - London

2) The Rothschild Family - Berlin

3) The Lazard Brothers - Paris

4) Israel Seiff - Italy

5) Kuhn-Loeb Company - Germany

6) The Warburgs - Amsterdam

7) The Warburgs - Hamburg

8) Lehman Brothers - New York

9) Goldman & Sachs - New York

10) The Rockefeller Family - New York


Now I don't know about you, but something is terribly wrong with this situation. Namely, don't we live in AMERICA? If so, why are seven of the top ten stockholders located in FOREIGN countries? That's 70%! To further convey how screwed-up this system is, Jim Marrs provides the following data in his phenomenal book, "Rule By Secrecy." He says that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which undeniably controls the other eleven Federal Reserve branches, is essentially controlled by two financial institutions:


1) Chase-Manhattan (controlled by the Rockefellers) - 6,389,445 shares - 32.3%
2) Citbank - 4,051,851 shares - 20.5%


Thus, these two entities control nearly 53% of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Doesn't that boggle your mind? Now, considering how many trillions of dollars are involved here, and how the bankers are WAY above our "selected" officials in Washington, D.C., do you think the above-listed banks and families have an inordinate amount of say-so in how our country is being run? The answer is blindingly apparent. 

Where does the money come from?
We all know that the Federal Reserve CORPORATION prints money - then loans it, at interest, to our government. But wait until you see what a total scam this process is. But before we get to the meat of this issue, let's remember one thing about the very essence of banking - primarily that money should have some type of standard upon which its value is based. In the case of America, we operate on what is called a "gold standard" (i.e. our money is backed by gold). 

So, with that in mind, let's look at how money is actually created, and at what cost. If the Federal Reserve wants to print 1,000 one-hundred ($100) bills, their total cost for ink, paper, plates, labor, etc. would be approximately $23.00 (according to Davy Kidd in "Why A Bankrupt America"). Now, if you do the math, the total cost of 10,000 bills would be $230.00 ($.023 x 10,000). But, and here's the catch - 10,000 $100 bills equals $1,000,000! So, the Federal Reserve can "create" a million dollars, then LEND it to the U.S. Government (with interest) for a total cost of $230.00! That's not a bad deal, huh!


The banking industry calls this process "seignorage." I call it outright THEFT. Why? Well, regardless of the immense profit margin ($1,000,000 for $230), plus the huge interest payments, our government then needs to STEAL the American people's money to payoff their debts via a Mob-like agency called the IRS. So the bankers steal from the government, then the government turns around and steals from the people. I'm no genius, but who do you think is getting screwed in this process? US - the people at the bottom rung of the ladder. 

What's worse is that - now catch your breath - there's NO MORE gold left in Fort Knox! It's all gone. In other words, the GOLD STANDARD that our financial system was based upon is now an illusion. We can't convert our money into gold --- only other currency. The entire underlying basis for our money is now a lie - a sham. The Federal Reserve has become so arrogant that they've become a literal MONEY MAKING MACHINE, creating currency out of thin air! So that's where the Fed gets their money - they literally make it, then lend it to us so they can make even MORE money off of it. 

Money As A Religion
The above-detailed process has become so ridiculous that William Grieder, former assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, wrote a book in 1987 entitled, "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" that details how the Controllers have conditioned us to accept this absurd situation. 

To modern minds," he writes, "it seemed bizarre to think of the Federal Reserve as a religious institution. Yet the conspiracy theorists, in their own demented way, were on to something real and significant. The Fed did also function in the realm of religion. Its mysterious powers of money creation, inherited from priestly forebears, shielded a complex bundle of social and psychological meanings. With its own form of secret incantation, the Federal Reserve presided over awesome social ritual, transactions so powerful and frightening they seemed to lie beyond common understanding."


Mr. Grieder continues, "Above all, money was a function of faith. It required implicit and universal social consent that was indeed mysterious. To create money and use it, each one must believe, and everyone must believe. Only then did worthless pieces of paper take on value."


Do you get it? MONEY is an ILLUSION! Why? Because the gold standard upon which our money is supposed to be based has been eliminated. There's no more gold in Fort Knox. It's all GONE! Now, money really IS only paper!!! In the past, money was supposed to represent something of tangible value.
Now it's simply paper!


Taken one step further, many of us don't even use paper money any more! Why? Well, here's a scenario. Many places of employment directly deposit their employee's paychecks into the bank. Once the money is there, when bill time comes around, the person in question can write out a stack of checks to pay them. Plus, when they need gasoline they use a credit card; and groceries a debit card. If this person goes out for dinner on Friday night, they can charge the tab on their diner's card. But what about the tip? They simply scribble in the amount at the bottom of the check. So far, the person hasn't spent a single dollar bill. Plus, if you bring electronic banking into the picture, we've virtually eliminated the use for money.


And, God forbid, what happens when encoded microchips are implanted into the backs of our hand?
In essence, money has become nothing more than an illusion - an electronic figure or amount on a computer screen. That's it! As time goes on, we have an increasing tendency toward being sucked into this Wizard of Oz vortex of unreality. Think about it. Americans as a whole are carrying more personal debt than in any other time in history. Plus our government keeps going further and further into the hole, with no hope of ever crawling out. But we have less and less actual MONEY! We're being enslaved by the debt of electronic blips on a computer screen! And 70% of the banks that control this debt via the Federal Reserve exist in foreign countries! What in God's name is going on? As author William Bramley says, "The result of this whole system is MASSIVE debt at every level of society."


We're getting screwed in a sickening way, folks, and the people doing it are demented magician-priests that use the ILLUSION of money as their control device. And I hate to say it, but if we allow things to keep going as they are, the situation will only get worse. Our only hope ... ONLY HOPE ... is to immediately take drastic action and remedy this crime.

Do some research, wake up, stand up and do something about it....

IRS FRAUD

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THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE USA TODAY WILL EXPLAIN ALL OF IT

WHY DO YOU PAY TAXES?

USA TODAY ARTICLE 1

USA TODAY ARTICLE 2

USA TODAY ARTICLE 3

USA TODAY ARTICLE 4

USA TODAY ARTICLE 5

Birth Certificates are Federal Bank Notes

In 1913, Colonel Edward Mandell House helped to pick the charter members of the original Federal Reserve Board.

Edward Mandell House (originally “Huis” which became “House”) was born July 26, 1858 in Houston, Texas. He became active in Texas politics and served as an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson, particularly in the area of foreign affairs. House functioned as Wilson's chief negotiator in Europe during the negotiations for peace (1917-1919), and as chief deputy for Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference. He died on March 28, 1938 in New York City.

Edward and his father had friends in the Ku Klux Klan.  The Klan dispensed vigilante justice after the Civil War.  In 1880 a new legitimate group was in charge of dispensing justice in Texas -- the Texas Rangers.  Many of the Texas Rangers were members of the Klan. Edward was the new master.  Edward gained their loyalty by stroking their egos.  Edward would use his money and influence to try and make them famous.  Edward eventually inherited the Texas Ku Klux Klan.

Edward Mandell House helped to make four men governor of Texas: James S. Hogg (1892), Charles A. Culberson (1894), Joseph D. Sayers (1898), and S. W.T. Lanham (1902).  After the election House acted as unofficial advisor to each governor.  Hogg gave House the title "Colonel" by promoting House to his staff.

Edward wanted to control more than Texas, Edward wanted to control the country. Edward would do so by becoming a king maker instead of a king. Edward knew that if he could control two or three men in the Senate, two or three men in the House; and the President, he could control the country.

Edward would influence the candidate from behind the scenes. The people would perceive one man was representing them, when in reality; an entirely different man was in control.  House didn't need to influence millions of people; he need only influence a handful of men.  Edward would help establish a secret society in America that would operate in the same fashion -- the Council on Foreign Relations.

Edward Mandell House was instrumental in getting Woodrow Wilson elected as President.  Edward had the support of William Jennings Bryan and the financial backing of the House of Rockefeller's National City Bank.  Edward became Wilson's closest unofficial advisor.

Edward Mandell House and some of his schoolmates were also members of Cecil Rhodes Round Table group.  The Round Table Group, the back bone of the Secret Society, had four pet projects, a graduated income tax, a central bank, creation of a Central Intelligence Agency, and the League of Nations.

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The Confessions of a Reformer by Fredric C. Howe

The Confessions of a Reformer by Fredric C. Howe

Between 1901 and 1913 the House of Morgan and the House of Rockefeller formed close alliances with the Dukes and the Mellons. This group consolidated their power and came to dominate other Wall Street powers including: Carnegie, Whitney, Vanderbilt, Brown-Harriman, and Dillon-Reed. The Round Table Group wanted to control the people by having the government tax people and deposit the peoples money in a central bank. The Group would take control of the bank and therefore have control of the money. The Group would take control of the State Department and formulate government policy, which would determine how the money was spent. The Group would control the CIA which would gather information about people, and script and produce psycho-political operations focused at the people to influence them to act in accord with Round Table Group State Department policy decisions. The Group would work to consolidate all the nations of the world into a single nation, with a single central bank under their control, and a single International Security System.  Some of the first legislation of the Wilson Administration was the institution of the graduated income tax (1913) and the creation of a central bank called the Federal Reserve.  An inheritance tax was also instituted. These tax laws were used to rationalize the need for legislation that allowed the establishment of tax-exempt foundations. The tax-exempt foundations became the link between the Group member's private corporations and the University system. The Group would control the Universities by controlling the sources of their funding. The funding was money sheltered from taxes being channeled in ways which would help achieve Round Table Group aims.

Edward Mandell House had this to say in a private meeting with President Woodrow Wilson:

“[Very] soon, every American will be required to register their biological property in a national system designed to keep track of the people and that will operate under the ancient system of pledging.  By such methodology, we can compel people to submit to our agenda, which will effect our security as a chargeback for our fiat paper currency. Every American will be forced to register or suffer being unable to work and earn a living. They will be our chattel, and we will hold the security interest over them forever, by operation of the law merchant under the scheme of secured transactions. 

Americans, by unknowingly or unwittingly delivering the bills of lading to us will be rendered bankrupt and insolvent,   forever to remain economic slaves through taxation, secured by their pledges. They will be stripped of their rights and given a commercial value designed to make us a profit and they will be none the wiser, for not one man in a million could ever figure our plans and, if by accident one or two should figure it out, we have in our arsenal plausible deniability. After all, this is the only logical way to fund government, by floating liens and debt to the registrants in the form of benefits and privileges. This will inevitably reap to us huge profits beyond our wildest expectations and leave every American a contributor to this fraud which we will call  “Social Insurance.” Without realizing it, every American will insure us for any loss we may incur and in this manner, every American will unknowingly be our servant, however begrudgingly. The people will become helpless and without any hope for their redemption and, we will employ the high office of the President of our dummy corporation to foment this plot against America.”

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City of London Corporation:

The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's financial sector.

In 2006 the name was changed from Corporation of London as the corporate body needed to be distinguished from the geographical area thus avoiding confusion with the wider London local government, the Greater London Authority.[3]

Both businesses and residents of the City, or "Square Mile", are entitled to vote in City elections, and in addition to its functions as the local authority—analogous to those undertaken by the 32 boroughs that administer the rest of the Greater London region—it takes responsibility for supporting the financial services industry and representing its interests.[4] The corporation's structure includes the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, the Court of Common Council, and the Freemen and Livery of the City. The "Liberties and Customs" of the City of London are guaranteed in Magna Carta’s clause 9, which remains in statute.[5]

Two Constitutions in the United States. 1st was suspended in favor of a Vatican Corporation in 1871

“Pope meeting with the board of directors of The Vatican Bank

Since 1871 the United States president and the United States Congress has been playing politics under a different set of rules and policies. The American people do not know that there are two Constitutions in the United States. The first penned by the leaders of the newly independent states of the United States in 1776. On July 4, 1776, the people claimed their independence from Britain and Democracy was born. And for 95 years the United States people were free and independent. That freedom ended in 1871 when the original “Constitution for the united states for America” was changed to the “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”.

The Congress realized that the country was in dire financial straits, so they made a financial deal with the devil – international bankers — (in those days, the Rothschilds of London ) thereby incurring a DEBT to said bankers. The conniving international bankers were not about to lend the floundering nation any money without some serious stipulations. So, they devised a way of taking back control of the United States and thus, the Act of 1871 was passed. With no constitutional authority to do so, Congress created a separate form of government for the District of Columbia.

With the passage of “the Act of 1871” a city state (a state within a state) called the District of Columbia located on 10 sq miles of land in the heart of Washington was formed with its own flag and its own independent constitution – the United States’ secret second constitution.

The flag of Washington’s District of Columbia has 3 red stars, each symbolizing a city state within the three city empire. The three city empire consists of Washington D.C., London, and Vatican City. London is the corporate center of the three city states and controls the world economically. Washington’s District of Columbia city state is in charge of the military, and the Vatican controls it all under the guise of spiritual guidance. Although geographically separate, the city states of London, the Vatican and the District of Columbia are one interlocking empire called “Empire of the City”

The constitution for the District of Columbia operates under tyrannical Vatican law known as “Lex Fori” (local law). When congress passed the act of 1871 it created a separate corporation known as THE UNITED STATES and corporate government for the District of Columbia. This treasonous act has unlawfully allowed the District of Columbia to operate as a corporation outside the original constitution of the United States and in total disregard of the best interests of the American citizens.

What did the Act of 1871 achieve? The ACT of 1871 put the United States back under British rule (which is under Vatican rule). The United States people lost their independence in 1871.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is the constitution of the incorporated UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. It operates in an economic capacity and has been used to fool the People into thinking it governs the Republic. It does not! Capitalization is NOT insignificant when one is referring to a legal document. This seemingly “minor” alteration has had a major impact on every subsequent generation of Americans. What Congress did by passing the Act of 1871 was create an entirely new document, a constitution for the government of the District of Columbia, an INCORPORATED government.

Instead of having absolute and unalienable rights guaranteed under the organic Constitution, we the people now have “relative” rights or privileges. One example is the Sovereign’s right to travel, which has now been transformed (under corporate government policy) into a “privilege” that requires citizens to be licensed – driver’s licenses and Passports. By passing the Act of 1871, Congress committed TREASON against the People who were Sovereign under the grants and decrees of the Declaration of Independence and the organic Constitution. The Act of 1871 became the FOUNDATION of all the treason since committed by government officials.

As of 1871 the United States isn’t a Country; It’s a Corporation! In preparation for stealing America, the puppets of Britain’s banking cabal had already created a second government, a Shadow Government designed to manage what “the people” believed was a democracy, but what really was an incorporated UNITED STATES. Together this chimera, this two-headed monster, disallowed “the people” all rights of sui juris. [you, in your sovereignty]

The U.S.A. is a Crown Colony. The U.S. has always been and remains a British Crown colony. King James I, is not just famous for translating the Bible into “The King James Version”, but for signing the “First Charter of Virginia” in 1606 — which granted America’s British forefathers license to settle and colonize America. The charter guaranteed future Kings/Queens of England would have sovereign authority over all citizens and colonized land in America.

After America declared independence from Great Britain, the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783 was signed. That treaty identifies the King of England as prince of U.S. “Prince George the Third, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, duke of Brunswick and Lunebourg, arch- treasurer and prince elector of the Holy Roman Empire etc., and of the United States of America“– completely contradicting premise that America won The War of Independence.

Article 5 of that treaty gave all British estates, rights and properties back to Britain.

“It is agreed that Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the legislatures of the respective states to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects; and also of the estates, rights, and properties of persons resident in districts in the possession on his Majesty’s arms and who have not borne arms against the said United States. And that persons of any other decription shall have free liberty to go to any part or parts of any of the thirteen United States and therein to remain twelve months unmolested in their endeavors to obtain the restitution of such of their estates, rights, and properties as may have been confiscated; and that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states a reconsideration and revision of all acts or laws regarding the premises, so as to render the said laws or acts perfectly consistent not only with justice and equity but with that spirit of conciliation which on the return of the blessings of peace should universally prevail. And that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states that the estates, rights, and properties, of such last mentioned persons shall be restored to them, they refunding to any persons who may be now in possession the bona fide price (where any has been given) which such persons may have paid on purchasing any of the said lands, rights, or properties since the confiscation.

And it is agreed that all persons who have any interest in confiscated lands, either by debts, marriage settlements, or otherwise, shall meet with no lawful impediment in the prosecution of their just rights.”

It is becoming increasingly apparent to American citizens that government is no longer being conducted in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, or, within states, according to state constitutions. While people have recognized for more than 150 years that the rich and powerful often corrupt individual officials, or exert undue influence to get legislation passed that favors their interests, most Americans still cling to the naive belief that such corruption is exceptional, and that most of the institutions of society, the courts, the press, and law enforcement agencies, still largely comply with the Constitution and the law in important matters. They expect that these corrupting forces are disunited and in competition with one another, so that they tend to balance one another.

Mounting evidence makes it clear that the situation is far worse than most people think, that during the last several decades the U.S. Constitution has been effectively overthrown, and that it is now observed only as a façade to deceive and placate the masses.”

The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871

“is an Act of Congress that repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and established a new territorial government for the whole District of Columbia. Though Congress repealed the territorial government in 1874, the legislation was the first to create a single municipal government for the federal district.[1].

The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to notable growth in the capital's population due to the expansion of the federal government and a large influx of emancipated slaves.[2] By 1870, the District's population had grown 75% to nearly 132,000 residents.[3] Growth was even more dramatic within the County of Washington, where the population more than doubled as people escaped the crowded city.[4]

The individual local governments within the District were insufficient to handle the population growth. Living conditions were poor throughout the capital, which still had dirt roads and lacked basic sanitation. The situation was so bad that some lawmakers in Congress even suggested moving the capital out further west, but President Ulysses S. Grant refused to consider the proposals.[5]

Instead, Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which revoked the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown and combined them with Washington County to create a unified territorial government for the entire District of Columbia.[6]

The Act did not establish a new city or city government within the District. Regarding a city , it stated that "the District of Columbia be, and is hereby, declared to be the successor of said corporations (Washington and Georgetown)". In the present day, the name "Washington" is commonly used to refer to the entire District, but there is no longer an official entity in the District by that name.[9]

The Papal Bull Dum Diversas issued by Pope Nicholas V, June 18, 1452, states,

we grant to you full and free power, through the Apostolic authority by this edict, to invade, conquer, fight, subjugate the Saracens and pagans, and other infidels and other enemies of Christ, and wherever established their Kingdoms, Duchies, Royal Palaces, Principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps and any other possessions, mobile and immobile goods found in all these places and held in whatever name, and held and possessed by the same Saracens, Pagans, infidels, and the enemies of Christ, also realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps, possessions of the king or prince or of the kings or princes, and to lead their persons in perpetual servitude, and to apply and appropriate realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, possessions and goods of this kind to you and your use and your successors the Kings of Portugal.”

The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera," issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493 stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that "the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself." This "Doctrine of Discovery" became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion. This ideology supported the dehumanization of those living on the land and their dispossession, murder, and forced assimilation. The Doctrine fueled white supremacy insofar as white European settlers claimed they were instruments of divine design and possessed cultural superiority.  

The Doctrine of Discovery was the inspiration in the 1800s for the Monroe Doctrine, which declared U.S. hegemony over the Western Hemisphere, and Manifest Destiny, which justified American expansion westward by propagating the belief that the U.S. was destined to control all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific and beyond. 

THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY IN U.S. LAW

In 1823, the Christian Doctrine of Discovery was quietly adopted into U.S. law by the Supreme Court in the celebrated case, Johnson v. McIntosh (8 Wheat., 543). Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice John Marshall observed that Christian European nations had assumed "ultimate dominion" over the lands of America during the Age of Discovery, and that - upon "discovery" - the Indians had lost "their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations," and only retained a right of "occupancy" in their lands. In other words, Indians nations were subject to the ultimate authority of the first nation of Christendom to claim possession of a given region of Indian lands. [Johnson:574; Wheaton:270-1]

According to Marshall, the United States - upon winning its independence in 1776 - became a successor nation to the right of "discovery" and acquired the power of "dominion" from Great Britain. [Johnson:587-9] Of course, when Marshall first defined the principle of "discovery," he used language phrased in such a way that it drew attention away from its religious bias, stating that "discovery gave title to the government, by whose subject, or by whose authority, the discovery was made, against all other European governments." [Johnson:573-4] However, when discussing legal precedent to support the court's findings, Marshall specifically cited the English charter issued to the explorer John Cabot in March of 1496, in order to document England's "complete recognition" of the Doctrine of Discovery. [Johnson:576] Then, paraphrasing the language of the charter, Marshall noted that Cabot was authorized to take possession of lands, "notwithstanding the occupancy of the natives, who were heathens, and, at the same time, admitting the prior title of any Christian people who may have made a previous discovery." [Johnson:577]. The charter further said,

“John and his sons or their heirs and deputies may conquer, occupy and possess whatsoever such towns, castles, cities and islands by them thus discovered that they may be able to conquer, occupy and possess, as our vassals and governors lieutenants and deputies therein, acquiring for us the dominion, title and jurisdiction of the same towns, castles, cities, islands and mainlands so discovered;”

In other words, the Court affirmed that United States law was based on a fundamental rule of the "Law of Nations" - that it was permissible to virtually ignore the most basic rights of indigenous "heathens," and to claim that the "unoccupied lands" of America rightfully belonged to discovering Christian European nations.

Of course, it's important to understand that, as Benjamin Munn Ziegler pointed out in The International Law of John Marshall, the term "unoccupied lands" referred to "the lands in America which, when discovered, were 'occupied by Indians' but 'unoccupied' by Christians." [Ziegler:46]

Ironically, the same year that the Johnson v. McIntosh decision was handed down, founding father James Madison wrote: "Religion is not in the purview of human government. Religion is essentially distinct from civil government, and exempt from its cognizance; a connection between them is injurious to both."

Most of us have been brought up to believe that the United States Constitution was designed to keep church and state apart. Unfortunately, with the Johnson decision, the Christian Doctrine of Discovery was not only written into U.S. law but also became the cornerstone of U.S. Indian policy over the next century.

Your ALL CAPITALIZED NAME

US Code Proof of Death to Support Fed Payment.jpg

The practice of Law CAN NOT be licensed by any state/State.” (Schware v. Board of Examiners, 353 U.S. 238, 239) U. S. Supreme Court

According to Common Law Trust Solutions,

“The practice of Law is AN OCCUPATION OF COMMON RIGHT.” (Sims v. Aherns, 271 S.W. 720 (1925))

The “CERTIFICATE” from the State Supreme Court:

ONLY authorizes, to practice Law “IN COURTS” as a member of the STATE JUDICIAL BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT Can ONLY represent WARDS OF THE COURT, INFANTS, PERSONS OF UNSOUND MIND (SEE CORPUS JURIS SECUNDUM, VOLUME 7, SECTION 4.)

A “CERTIFICATE” is not a license to practice law as an occupation, nor to do business as a law firm. The B.A.R. is a non-governmental private association.

The “STATE B.A.R.” card is not a license!!! it is a “union dues card.” ”the “b.a.r.” is a “professional association,” as any union like the actors union, or painters union. no other association, even doctors, issue their own license. all are issued by the state. They are the “London Lawyers’ Guild” in CITY OF LONDON and found by Congress to be a “Communist Organization.” It turns out that Congress wasn’t wrong, it wasn’t stating the greater of the truths. The B.A.R. is a Pirate Ghost Ship.

The “STATE OF…” B.A.R. is an unconstitutional monopoly, an illegal, “Continuing Criminal Enterprise,” in violation of Article 2, Section 1, Separation of Powers clause of the U.S Constitution. There is NO POWER OR AUTHORITY for joining of Legislative, Judicial, or Executive branches within a state as the B.A.R. is attempting. “B.A.R.” members have invaded all branches of govt. & are attempting to control de jure governments as agents of a foreign entity!

A great fraud & conspiracy has been perpetrated on the people of America. The American Bar Association/ABA is an offshoot from London Lawyers’ Guild and was established by people with invasive monopolistic goals in mind. In 1909 they incorporated this TRAITOROUS group in the state of Illinois & had the State Legislature (which was under the control of lawyers) pass an unconstitutional law that only members of this powerful union of lawyers, called the “ABA,” could practice law & hold all the key positions in law enforcement & the making of laws. At that time, Illinois became an outlaw state, & for all practical purposes, they seceded from the United States of America.

The biggest part of this is to conceal from the people that all their Statutes, Codes, Rules, Regulations, Policies, Procedures, and even your mortgage fraud, yes the fraud, is copyrighter, patented, and with your approval [!?!]. It’s NOT A LICENSE! It’s all about privileges in a very private corporation called “STATE OF…” “STATE OF VIRGINIA” is a franchise/subdivision of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 4, DBA, and not to be confused with the Republic, or Virginia, which is a State.

CAPITIS DIMINUTIO MAXIMA – ALL CAPS – THE VOICE OF THE DEAD -CORPORATIONS – “STATE OF…” – JOHN. H. DOE

In Roman law, A diminishing or abridgment of personality. Tills was a loss or curtailment of a man’s status or aggregate of legal attributes and qualifications, following upon certain changes in his civil condition. It was of three kinds, enumerated as follows: Capitis diminutio maxima. The highest or most comprehensive loss of status. This occurred when a man’s condition was changed from one of freedom to one of bondage, when he became a slave. It swept away with it all rights of citizenship and all family rights. Capitis diminutio media. A lesser or medium loss of status. This occurred where a man lost his rights of citizenship, but without losing his liberty. It carried away also the family rights. Capitis diminutio minima. Tile lowest or least comprehensive degree of loss of status. This occurred where a man’s family relations alone were changed. It happened upon the arrogation of a person who had been his own master, (sui juris,) or upon the emancipation of one who had been under the patria potestas. It left the rights of liberty and citizenship unaltered. See Inst. 1, 1G, pr.; 1, 2, 3; Dig. 4, 5, 11; Mackeld. Rom. Law. Law Dictionary: What is CAPITIS DIMINUTIO? definition of CAPITIS DIMINUTIO (Black’s Law Dictionary)

The “B.A.R. ASSOCIATION” sent organizers to all the other states & explained to the lawyers there how much more profitable & secure it would be for them, as lawyers, to join this union & be protected by its bylaws & cannons. They issued to the lawyers in each state a charter from the Illinois organization. California joined in 1927 & a few reluctant states & their lawyers waited until the 1930’s to join when the treasonous Act became DE FACTO & the Citizen’s became captives.

The people were ATTORNED over to serve the Crown as U.S. citizen slaves. This is enticement to slavery and/or “press-ganging.” Debt slaves are held as surety for the debt by the B.A.R.

Under this system, the lawyers could guarantee prejudged decisions for the privileged class against the lower class. This was all made possible by the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION to favor the right & have unlawfully substituted them in place of Constitutional Laws. The Constitution was written in plain English and the Statutes passed by Congress were also in plain English, with the intent of Congress how each law should be used & not the opinions of various Judges as the codes list. Any normal person can read the Constitution & Statutes & understand them without any trouble.

The “public” in California was shocked to learn that the State Government has no control or jurisdiction over the B.A.R. Assoc. or its members. The state does not accredit the law schools or hold B.A.R. examinations. They do not issue state licenses to Lawyers. The B.A.R. Association accredits all the law schools, holds their private examinations & selects the students they will accept in their organization & issues them so-called license but keeps the fees for themselves. The B.A.R. is the only one that can punish or “disbar” a Lawyer.

They also select the Lawyers that they consider qualified for Judgeships & various other offices in the State. Only the B.A.R. Association, or their designated committees, can remove any of these lawyers from public office. The State Legislature will not change this system as they are also a designated committee of the B.A.R. On August 21, 1984, Rose Bird, Chief Justice of the California State Supreme Court, another of the B.A.R. Associations Judicial Committee’s, stated in essence, that the B.A.R. should determine the legality of all initiatives before they were allowed to go on the ballot. They’re like an underground tide, sneaking in, every day, as undercover of the dark, creeping and intertwining and invading every process into their tentacles of presumption to control America. In no uncertain terms, the B.A.R. is really a subversive and malignant cancer to America as well as the enemy of the people. Quite often, the Chairman of House and Senate “Judiciary” Committees are Crown Temple B.A.R. Attornies. Did you elect an Agent of the Crown for your “STATE OF…?”

This is contrary to both State & Federal Constitutions, as well as the Laws of this Nation instituted “By & For the People” as a Sovereign UNITY of Independent States of We The People, not a fraudulent Corporate entity of Lawyers. This is a tremendous amount of power for a PRIVATE union that is incorporated & headquartered in Illinois to hold over the “Citizens of California” or any other state. The only recourse is through this initiative process & vote by the people for the State, so do NOT vote for Crown Temple B.A.R. Agents. Avoid the deception. You don’t know any Attorneys who aren’t sworn to the Crown, because if they aren’t, they’d be telling you what you’re reading in this missive.

After the “Founding Fathers,” (founders of the debt charter for the King) had formed the bankruptcy document called the Constitution, outlining the laws as to the way our “govt.” was to be run, Thomas Jefferson said, in essence, “This proves that plain people, if given the chance, can enact laws & run a “government” as well as or better than royalty & the blue bloods of Europe.” The American people must stop thinking that lawyers are better than they are & can do a better job than they can before the courts of America.

Under the Common Law & the Laws of America, nowhere is it expressly given for anyone to have the power or the right to form a Corporation. “Corporations” are given “birth” because of ignorance on the part of the American people and are operating under implied consent & power which they have usurped & otherwise stolen from the people. By right and law they have NO power, authority, or jurisdiction, and must be put out of business by the good Citizens of America in their fight for freedom.

The Constitution GUARANTEES to every state in this union a REPUBLICAN form of government. Any other form of government is FORBIDDEN. No public officer or branch of government can be limited to a RULING CLASS of any kind, or the states become ARISTOCRACIES and NOT Republics. Also, the lawyers have made themselves First Class Citizens, where many public offices and branches of government are open to lawyers only. Why? Because it’s not a “government.” They’re operating a government over the District of Columbia, and extending their jurisdiction over the Crown Territory in the Treaty of Paris/Peace. It’s one thing for them to be enforcing corporate policy, but they have suckered Americans into their jurisdiction so they can rob their energy by way of massive taxes, and enslavement.

ALL OTHER PEOPLE ARE LIMITED TO ONLY TWO BRANCHES OF THIS TWISTED FORM OF GOVERNMENT, AND ONLY TO CERTAIN OFFICES IN THOSE TWO BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT, MAKING ALL PEOPLE WHO ARE NON-LAWYERS INTO SECOND CLASS SUBJECT CITIZENS.

When the courts belong to the people, as the United States Constitution REQUIRES, (Art. IV, § 4, we the people, will NEVER rule against themselves.) In these unconstitutional foreign tribunals “courts” (hoodlum centers), “men” in black dresses, that are unconstitutional ROBES OF NOBILITY. (Art. 1, §§ 9 & 10) dispense a perverted ideology, where the people are terrorized by members of the BLACK ROBE CULT (B.A.R. Lawyers and Lawyer judges in the courtrooms).

The real cause for the War of 1812, FOREIGN AGENTS with TITLES: Article XIII “If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any Emperor, King, Prince, or foreign Power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”

The legislative branch of government does NOT have the Constitutional Power to issue Court Orders or any other kind of Orders to the people, as a “fiction court” or a “court/corporation for profit & gain” cannot reach parity with a lawful man. ONLY Presidents & Governors have the Constitutional Power to grant PARDONS, but Lawyers and Lawyer-Judges are unconstitutionally granting PARDONS with “immunity from prosecution.” This is not really what’s commonly known as “legislating from the bench.” It’s Administrating from the bench, because the de facto is not a constitutional government at all. It’s an Executive/Administrative, Martial Law Rule Military Tribunal. They’re Bankers. They’re Brokers. People CAN and SHOULD prosecute them because we are not Crown Subjects. We are State Citizens, and not responsible for their fictitious corporate Monopoly Game, even if they wish to coerce us into the OFFICE OF THE PERSON.

Citizens are not permitted to act like people in the courts. The Citizen (2nd class) is told that he does not know how to fill out fancy lawyer forms; that he is not trained in the law; that he does not know court rules and procedures; etc… This is unconstitutional “lawyer system,” only HEARSAY SUBSTITUTES (lawyers) NOT under oath, have access to the fiction/for profit & gain courts, even though ONLY sworn testimony & evidence can be presented in court. Anything else is “Bill of Attainder,” NOT permitted under the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Sections 9 & 10).

The U.S. Constitution does NOT give anyone the right to a lawyer or the right to counsel, or the right to any other hearsay substitute. The 6th Amendment is very specific, that the accused ONLY has the right to the ASSISTANCE of counsel and this assistance of counsel can be anyone the accused chooses without limitation. Only a STATE EMPLOYEE/U.S. citizen can be forced into having a B.A.R. Attorner because the U.S. citizen is a DEAD entity, with no standing in Law, as the INCOMPETENT IMBECILE/WARD OF THE STATE. This is not a joke.

Lawyers and Lawyer/Judges created unconstitutional “lawyer system” of pre-trial “motions” and “hearings” to have eternal extortionistic litigations, which is BARRATRY and also is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and Art. 1, as this places defendants in double jeopardy a 100x over. Defendants only have a right to a trial, not trials. When a criminal is freed on a technicality, he is freed because of a fix and a pay-off, as a defendant can only be freed if found innocent by a “jury” not by any “technicality.”

Whenever a lawyer is involved in a case directly or indirectly, as a litigant or assisting in counsel, all Lawyer/Judges have to disqualify themselves, as there cannot be a constitutional trial & also there would be a violation of the conflict of interest laws, along with the violation of separation of powers and checks and balances, because “officers” of the court are on both sides of the bench.

These same Lawyer/Judges are awarding or approving Lawyer/Attorner fees, directly & indirectly, amounting to billion of dollars annually, all in violation of conflict of interest laws. As long as there are lawyers, there will never be any law, Constitution or Justice. There will only be MOB RULE, RULE BY A MOB OF LAWYERS. Remember, you are not a CORPORATION, or a DEAD entity, PERSON/U.S. citizen, so make sure you do NOT act like one.

Case “law” (history, not law) is unconstitutional: As case “law” is enacted by the judicial branch of government . When a Lawyer/Judge instructs, directs, or gives orders to a jury, the Lawyer-Judge is TAMPERING WITH THE JURY. He also tampers with testimony when he orders the answers to be either “Yes” or “No.” The Lawyer-Judge also tampers, fixes, & rigs the trial when he orders anything stricken from the record, or when he “rules” certain evidence & the truth to be inadmissible.

This makes the trial and transcript fixed and rigged, because the jury does not hear the real truth and all the facts. Juries are made into puppets by the Lawyers and Lawyer/Judges. All Lawyers are automatically in the judicial branch of government, as they have the unconstitutional TITLE OF NOBILITY (Article 1, Section 9 & 10), “Officer of the Court.” Citizens have to be elected or hired to be in any branch of government, but non-lawyer Citizens are limited to only two of the three branches of government. Lawyers, as First Class citizens, can be hired or elected to any of the three branches of government. Again, in violation of the Constitution and additionally and specifically again in Article XIII.

They’re not just doing this to corporations. They’re doing this to people, which seriously means that every “Judge” who does exactly this, and they almost all do, is a most loathsome of characters. Anyone with a reasonable mind can see that B.A.R. Attorners/Lawyers/Judges are truly despicable people with big smiles, who are nice to their friends and families sometimes, but in reality, they’re criminal bastards, and that’s an understatement. Piracy is to be punishable by death.

Lawyers, “Officers of the Court,” in the Judicial Branch, are unconstitutionally in two branches of government at the SAME TIME whenever they are hired or elected to the executive or legislative branches. This is a violation of the separation of powers, checks & balances, and the conflict of interest laws. District Attorneys & State’s Attorneys have taken over the Grand Juries FROM the people, where the people are denied access to the Grand Juries when they attempt to present evidence of crimes committed in the courtrooms by the lawyers & lawyer-judges. This can be explained very easily! A State/Republic has a Constitution, but nowhere in many is the provision for a County Attorney to be in the Crown Temple B.A.R., but the B.A.R. Attorners who get themselves elected, then produce baseless Legislation requiring the County Attorner to be a member of the B.A.R. This is one of the greatest usurpations and treasonous acts that these criminals could do to the people because the County Attorney makes the presentments to the Grand Jury. This is how the Chief Justice of the STATE OF…, the CORPORATION, wrests control of the Grand Jury away from the people. Also, this is how the despicable B.A.R. brings/coerces COMMERCIAL CODE upon living men, although they’re foreclosed from parity with the tangible/living. Again, these are criminal pirates, robbing you of your rights, sweat, land, property, family, and life.

The U.S. Constitution, being the Supreme Fundamental Law, is not and cannot be ambiguous as to be interpreted, or it would be a worthless piece of paper & we would have millions of interpretations (unconstitutional amendments) instead of the few we have now. That is why all Judges and public servants are SWORN TO SUPPORT the U.S. Constitution, NOT interpret it.

Beyond their arrogant crimes of “interpreting” law, they change the form of language to “Legalese” which is word magic with God’s Law, the Word. Definition : “Legal: the undoing of God’s law.” 1893 Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Encyclopedia Britannica, a dictionary of arts, sciences and general literature / The R. S. Peale 9th 1893

Under International Orders: All Lawyers, whether they left law school yesterday or 50 years ago, are EXACTLY THE SAME. All Lawyers have to file the same motions/pleadings and follow the same procedures in using the same unconstitutional “Lawyer system.” In probate, the Lawyers place themselves in everyone’s will & estate. When there are minor children as heirs, the Lawyer-Judges appoint a lawyer (a child molesting Fagin) for EACH CHILD and, at times, the Lawyer fees EXCEED the total amount of the estate. If you’re paying attention, you’re seeing that the B.A.R. Attorners are robbing your family, even to the point of kidnapping them from you. This is press-ganging at it’s most filthy, and is punishable by death. Can you see why the Crown Temple B.A.R. wishes to keep themselves out of jurisdiction of the people under Common Law? It’s because they could and should be hanged for their Shang Hai enslavement.

An outrageous amount of tax “money” is directly & indirectly STOLEN by Lawyers. Money that is budgeted to County/City/Borough Boards, School Boards & other local & Federal agencies eventually finds its way into the pockets of lawyers, as ALL of these agencies are “tricked” & “forced” into eternal “extortionists” litigation, also they rob everything and everyone vis the theft of all the elastic currency created by these municipalities. This can be found in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports/ CAFR records. To see the privacy and fraud, visit www.cafr1.com

In the STATES OF ALASKA AND HAWAII, the Crown Temple B.A.R. ASSOCIATION. has mandated that all judges are to be licensed to practice law (e.g. Alaska Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 4). This license requirement is not found in any other state of the Union. As all licenses to practice law in the STATES OF ALASKA & HAWAII are issued by a Judge, what Judge is qualified to issue a license to practice law to another Judge? As only members of the B.A.R. may be licensed to practice law (e.g. A.S. 08.08.020), STATES OF ALASKA AND HAWAII judges are unlawfully REQUIRED to be members of the B.A.R. & as such, they are prejudiced to do the business of the B.A.R. If a Judge is required to be a member of the B.A.R., who disqualifies the Judge from office if that Judge does not pay the dues or violates the rules of the B.A.R? Every state in the Union (with the exception of Alaska & Hawaii) “prohibits” Judges from holding licenses to practice law.”

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SUMMARY OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

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1.       Balanta govern by common consent, recognizing “natural law” and reflecting their Great Belief spirituality.

2.       Mesintu violate natural law and Great Belief by instituting Cult of Horus at Edfu and establishing the earliest form of ecclesiastical law/jurisdiction

3.       Middle Kingdom Egypt violates natural law by establishing seru, kenbet and djadjat courts.

4.       Romans violate natural law by establishing ius civile Quiritium (Roman civil law)

 

5.       English violate natural law by establishing English common law

 

6.       The Church violates natural law by establishing canon law.

 

7.       Balanta defined as “extra ecclesiam” under canon law.

 

8.       Pope Innocent IV acknowledges that the law of nations had supplanted natural law in regulating human interaction, such as trade, conflict, and social hierarchies. Similarly, the prince replaced the father, as the ‘lawful authority in society’ through God’s provenance, manifesting his dominium in the monopoly over justice and sanctioned violence.

 

9.       Since the pope’s jurisdiction extended de jure over infidels (i.e. extra ecclesiam), he alone could call for a Christian invasion of an infidel’s domain. Even then, however, Pope Innocent IV maintained that only a violation of natural law could precipitate such an attack. By adhering to the beliefs of their gods, infidels and pagans did not violate natural law. Thus, such beliefs did not provide justification for Christians to simply invade non-Christian polities, dispossess its inhabitants of their territory and freedom, or force them to convert. Pope Innocent IV’s theological contribution resided in the fact that he accorded pagans and infidels dominium and therefore the right to live beyond the state of grace. However, The Papal Bull Dum Diversas issued by Pope Nicholas V, June 18, 1452, stated,

we grant to you full and free power, through the Apostolic authority by this edict, to invade, conquer, fight, subjugate the Saracens and pagans, and other infidels and other enemies of Christ, and wherever established their Kingdoms, Duchies, Royal Palaces, Principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps and any other possessions, mobile and immobile goods found in all these places and held in whatever name, and held and possessed by the same Saracens, Pagans, infidels, and the enemies of Christ, also realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps, possessions of the king or prince or of the kings or princes, and to lead their persons in perpetual servitude, and to apply and appropriate realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, possessions and goods of this kind to you and your use and your successors the Kings of Portugal.”

10.   Portugal’s invasion of Balanta territories violated natural law; violated canon law, violated the right of dominion of extra ecclesiam, violated the law of nations and was a breach of the principle of terra nullius (land that is legally deemed to be unoccupied or uninhabited) AT THE TIME OF INVASION.

 

11.   Portuguese acts of warfare in the territory of the Balanta violated the ius gentium to enslave a defeated population because , the Portuguese do not act in accordance to existing definitions of conquest and Balanta never practice slavery, and thus could not be party to any legal code regarding slavery that depended on “reasoned compliance with standards of international conduct.”  Balanta found such conduct – slavery-unreasonable and abhorrent.

 

12.   Portuguese violated natural law by equating status with sovereignty and then refusing to recognize that for the Balanta, the family is the sole effective social and political unit and thus sovereignty rested with the head of the family. Thus, the Portuguese wrongfully determined that Balanta were rootless and sovereignless and thus eligible for enslavement according to their own definitions and legal code.

 

13.   The English, Portuguese and Spanish Christian rulers violate natural law by contriving new forms of personhood called “corporations” subject to fictitious corporate or statutory laws while at the same time designating some groups, including the Balanta, as corporate-less beings with no protective shield of a culturally sanctioned corporate status. Christian authorities could compel corporate-less beings to adhere to Christian laws and customary norms thereby forsaking their own legal traditions and customs.

 

14.   The English violated natural law, the law of nations, and the Treaty of Tordesillas when they invaded the territory of the Balanta.

 

15.   The Portuguese and the English violated natural law by issuing charters and forming charter, proprietary and royal colonies to establish jurisdiction in the Americas.

 

16.   Every “slave code” in the America is thus intended to remove the Balanta identity and knowledge of the Balanta natural law culture and replace it with the corporate-less collective “strawman” identity designated as “negro” and “slave” and the individual “strawman” identity that is registered via a birth certificate so that Balanta will only know his rights, duties and responsibilities as defined by the corporation(s). For example, the Lords Proprietors made certain that the Negro’s status was fixed and distinctive. Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions, drafted in 1669, stated explicitly,

“(Article 101) Every Freeman of Carolina shall have absolute Authority over his Negro Slaves, of what opinion or Religion soever.”

 All the slave codes, however, had certain provisions in common. In all of them the colour line was firmly drawn, and any amount of African heritage established the race of a person as black, with little regard as to whether the person was slave or free. The status of the offspring followed that of the mother, so that the child of a free father and a slave mother was a slave. This is the reason for the birth certificate - it is the mechanism that establish’s an individual’s classification/status in American law.

17.   Only 22% of Balanta held in captivity in Cacheu were adult males. That means that the vast majority of Balanta that were captured were women and children. Thus, the majority of Balanta that were brought to the Americas had never completed their Balanta age-grade initiations which is described as “opening the doors’ of maturity and wisdom in the Balanta community.” Never having been initiated in the Balanta legal culture, and suffering the brainwashing of the Portuguese and English criminals through a systematic campaign of terrorism, within two generations Balanta lost all knowledge of their natural law way of life. This was done intentionally to keep them mentally enslaved by identifying themselves through the perspective of corporate statutory designations such as “negro”, “black”, and “citizen” with an onerous amount of restrictions, penalties, punishments and fines in violation to their fundamental freedoms of choice and action under natural law.

Index of Federal Slave Codes

 

18.   The fundamental legal question facing the Balanta is this: did the 14th amendment release them from any corporate or statutory legal jurisdictions and return them to their previous status that was governed by natural law? Will the United States Government recognize this? The issue has been put forward thusly:

 

US SPONSORED PLEBISCITE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN SELF DETERMINATION

 

No African who was taken captive and transported against his will to the Americas ever renounced their tribal identification and status vis-à-vis their original "citizenship". From 1444 up until Emancipation, all Africans held in slavery were not considered citizens of in the country of their captivity. The legal status of Africans in America after the Emancipation is undetermined. According to Imari Abubakari Obadele (founder of the Republic of New Africa):

"We are not American citizens... the Fourteenth Amendment, in an attempt to bestow citizenship upon the African newly freed from slavery, incorporated the rule of jus soli, 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States and of the state wherein they reside.' A sound principle of international law, the rule of jus soli was obviously intended to provide American citizenship for persons born in the United States through what might be termed 'acceptable accidents' of birth. Thus, a person born in the US as a result of his parents' having come to this country voluntarily -- through emigration and settlement or vacation travel or business -- could not be denied citizenship in the country of his birth. He might have dual citizenship, gaining also the citizenship of his parents, but he could not be left with no citizenship. His birth in the US under such conditions would meet the test of an "acceptable accident."

By contrast, however, the presence of the African in America could by no stretch of justice be deemed 'an acceptable accident' of birth. The African, whose freedom was now acknowledged by his former slavemasters through the Thirteenth Amendment, was not on this soil because he or his parents had come vacationing or seeking some business advantage. Rather the African -- standing forth now as a free man because the Thirteenth Amendment forbade whites (who had the power, not the right) to continue slavery -- was on American soil as a result of having been kidnapped and brought here AGAINST his will.

What the rule of jus soli demanded at this point -- at the point of the passage of the slavery-halting Thirteenth Amendment -- was that America not deny to this African, born on American soil, American citizenship -- IF THE AFRICAN WANTED IT. This last condition is crucial: the African, his freedom now acknowledged by persons who theretofore had wrongfully and illegally (under international law) held him in slavery by force, was entitled as a free man to decide for himself what he wanted to do -- whether he wished to be an American citizen or follow some other course.

The rule of jus soli, in protecting the kidnapped African from being left without any citizenship, could operate so far as to impose upon America the obligation to offer the African (born on American soil) American citizenship; it could not impose upon the African -- a victim of kidnapping and wrongful transportation -- an obligation to accept such citizenship. Such an imposition would affront justice, by conspiring with the kidnappers and illegal transporters, and wipe out the free man's newly acquired freedom.

Thus, the Fourteenth Amendment is incorrectly read when its Section One is deemed to be a grant of citizenship: it can only be an offer. The positive tone of the language can only emphasize the intention of the ratifiers to make a sincere offer. On the other hand, the United States government, under obligation to make the offer. also had the power to create the mechanism – a plebiscite-- whereby the African could make an informed decision, an informed acceptance or rejection of the offer of American citizenship. Indeed, Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment makes clear that Congress could pass whatever law was necessary to make real the offer of Section One. (Section Five says, 'The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.)

The first 'appropriate legislation' required at that moment -- and still required - was that which would make possible for the now free African an informed free choice, an informed acceptance or rejection of the citizenship offer.

Let us recall that, following the Thirteenth Amendment, four natural options were the basic right of the African. First, he did, of course, have a right, if he wished it, to be an American citizen. Second, he had a right to return to Africa or (third) go to another country -- if he could arrange his acceptance. Finally, he had a right (based on a claim to land superior to the European's, sub- ordinate to the Indian's) to set up an independent nation of his own.

Towering above all other juridical requirements that faced the African in America and the American following the Thirteenth Amendment was the requirement to make real the opportunity for choice, for self-determination. How was such an opportunity to evolve? Obviously, the African was entitled to full and accurate information as to his status and the principles of international law appropriate to his situation. This was all the more important because the African had been victim of a long-term intense slavery policy aimed at assuring his illiteracy, dehumanizing him as a group and depersonalizing him as an individual.

The education offered him after the Thirteenth Amendment confirmed the policy of dehumanization. It was continued in American institutions . . . for 100 years, through 1965. Now, again following the Thirteenth Amendment, the education of the African in America seeks to base African self-esteem on how well the African assimilates white American folk-ways and values Worse, the advice given the African concerning his rights under international law suggested that there was no option open to him other than American citizenship. For the most part, he was co-opted into spending his political energies in organizing and participating in constitutional conventions and then voting for legislatures which subsequently approved the Fourteenth Amendment. In such circumstances, the presentation of the Fourteenth Amendment to state legislatures for whose members the African had voted, and the Amendment's subsequent approval by these legislatures, could in no sense be considered a plebiscite.


The fundamental requirements were lacking: first, adequate and accurate information for the advise given the freedman was so bad it amounted to fraud, a second stealing of our birthright; second, a chance to choose among the four options: (1) US citizenship, (2) return to Africa, (3) emigration to another country and (4) the creation of a new African nation on American soil.

On the other hand, the United States government still has the obligation under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment to ‘enforce' Section One (the offer of citizenship) in the only way it could be rightfully 'enforced' -- by authorizing US participation in a plebiscite. By, in other words, a reference to our own will, our self-determined acceptance or rejection of the offer of citizenship. There are further important ramifications. A genuine plebiscite implies that if people vote against US citizenship, the means must be provided to facilitate whatever decision they do make. Thus, persons who vote to return to Africa or to emigrate elsewhere must have the means to do so. . . .

Now then, we repeat: an obvious and important ramification of the plebiscite is that there must exist the capability of putting its decisions into effect. If the decision is for US citizenship, then that citizenship must be unconditional. If it is for emigration to a country outside Africa, those persons making this choice must have transportation resources and reparations in terms of other benefits, principally money, to make such emigration possible and give it a reasonable chance of success. If the decision is for a return to some country in Africa, the person must have those same reparations as persons emigrating to countries outside Africa PLUS those additional reparations necessary to restore enough of the African personality for the individual to have a reasonable chance of success in integrating into African society in the motherland. If, finally, the decision is for an independent new African nation on this soil, then the reparations must be those agreed upon between the United States government and the new African government. Reparations must be at least sufficient to assure the new nation a reasonable chance of solving the great problems imposed upon us by the Americans in our status as a colonized people."

ORIGIN OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES

 

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DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

BALANTA LAW

1.       Balanta people, as all other human beings, were born equal and with complete freedom of choice and action.

 

2.       When the ancient Balanta ancestors grew in number and began to live in the same place with other people (42,000 BC to 3,100 BC), a few restrictions were accepted by common consent, over time. These were the first “laws” in human society.

 

3.       Generally speaking, laws are rules that the people in a society believe are important enough for the society to enforce. There is a purposeful and strong connection between law and that society's morality.

 

4.       The only restrictions on Balanta people were, and still are: Balanta must not injure or kill anyone; Balanta must not steal or damage things owned by someone else; Balanta must be honest in interactions and must not swindle anyone.

 

5.       The restrictions emerged from common consent and derived from Balanta’s spiritual system called The Great Belief. Today, this is called “Natural Law”

 

6.        

 

EGYPTIAN LAW

 

7.       The Mesintu or “Followers of Horus at Edfu” were the first to violate the Natural Law and develop a new legal code based on religious principles which they kept secret. From the Mesintu, a hierarchical system of social organization developed, and a system of Egyptian law was based on the central cultural value of ma’at (harmony). At the top of the judicial hierarchy was the king, the representative of the gods and their divine justice, and just beneath him was his vizier. The Egyptian vizier had many responsibilities and one of them was the practical administration of “justice”. The vizier heard court cases himself but also appointed lower magistrates. The legal system formed regionally at first, in the individual districts (called nomes) and was provided over by the governor (nomarch) and his steward.

 

8.       By the time of the Middle Kingdom period in Egypt, the courts which administered the law were the seru (a group of elders in a rural community), the kenbet (a court on the regional and national level) and the djadjat (the imperial court). If a crime were committed in a village and the seru could not reach a verdict the case would go up to the kenbet and then possibly the djadjat but this seems a rare occurrence. Usually, whatever happened in a village was handled by the seru of that town. The kenbet is thought to have been the body which made the laws and meted out punishments on a regional (district) level as well as a national level and the djadjat made the final ruling on whether a law was legal and binding in accordance with ma’at.

 

9.       The Egyptian hierarchy system was rejected by the Balanta because of the inequality it produced.  For the Balanta, the family is the sole effective social and political unit. . . . All important decisions amongst the Balanta were, and still are taken by a Council of Elders. To become a member of the Council of Elders, the person must be initiated during the Fanado ceremony.

 

10.   Balanta people successfully lived and defended their culture governed by Natural Law from the time of their first major conflict with the Mesintu in 3200 BC and against successive persecutions from the Themehu (Libyans), the Shashu and Habiru (Hyksos), Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Christians, Moslems, Magumi of Duguwa (Kanem) and Tumagera, Ma-Ba-U (Hausa), Soninke of Wagadu (Ghana), Tuareg (Berbers), Almoravids in Wagadu (Ghana), Keita Clan (Mali), the Sunni Dynasty (Songhay), the Askia Dynasty (Songhay), the Moors, Fulbe (Fulani coming from the west), and, by the twelfth century, the Manding of the Kaabu Kingdom during what is called The Balanta Migration Period.

 

11.   The latter part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt is simply one long, slow, decline into chaos until the country was annexed by Rome in 30 BCE and became another province of their empire. 

 

 

ROMAN LAW

 

12.   Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the Corpus Juris Civilis (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. Roman law forms the basic framework for civil law.

 

13.   Before the Twelve Tables (754–449 BC), private law comprised the Roman civil law (ius civile Quiritium) that applied only to Roman citizens, and was bonded to religion; undeveloped, with attributes of strict formalism, symbolism, and conservatism, e.g. the ritual practice of mancipatio (a form of sale). The jurist Sextus Pomponius said, "At the beginning of our city, the people began their first activities without any fixed law, and without any fixed rights: all things were ruled despotically, by kings". It is believed that Roman Law is rooted in the Etruscan religion, emphasizing ritual. The patricians (from Latin: patricius) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. According to Livy, the first 100 men appointed as senators by Romulus were referred to as "fathers" (Latin "patres"), and the descendants of those men became the patrician class. According to other opinions, the patricians (patricii) were those who could point to fathers, i.e. those who were members of the clans (gentes) whose members originally comprised the whole citizen body. The patricians were distinct from the plebeians because they had wider political influence, at least in the times of the early Republic. During the middle and late Republic, as this influence gradually eroded, plebeians were granted equal rights in most areas, and even greater in some. Patricians historically had more privileges and rights than plebeians. At the beginning of the Republic, patricians were better represented in the Roman assemblies, only patricians could hold high political offices, such as dictator, consul, censor, and all priesthoods (such as Pontifex Maximus) were closed to non-patricians. There was a belief that patricians communicated better with the Roman gods, so they alone could perform the sacred rites and take the auspices. This view had political consequences, since in the beginning of the year or before a military campaign, Roman magistrates used to consult the gods. Livy reports that the first admission of plebeians into a priestly college happened in 300 BC with the passage of the Lex Ogulnia, when the college of Augurs raised their number from four to nine. The distinction between patricians and plebeians in Ancient Rome was based purely on birth. Although modern writers often portray patricians as rich and powerful families who managed to secure power over the less-fortunate plebeian families, plebeians and patricians among the senatorial class were equally wealthy. As civil rights for plebeians increased during the middle and late Roman Republic, many plebeian families had attained wealth and power while some traditionally patrician families had fallen into poverty and obscurity.

 

14.   The plebeian tribune, C. Terentilius Arsa, proposed that the law should be written, in order to prevent magistrates from applying the law arbitrarily. After eight years of political struggle, the plebeian social class convinced the patricians to send a delegation to Athens, to copy the Laws of Solon; they also dispatched delegations to other Greek cities for like reason. In 451 BC, according to the traditional story (as Livy tells it), ten Roman citizens were chosen to record the laws (decemviri legibus scribundis). While they were performing this task, they were given supreme political power (imperium), whereas the power of the magistrates was restricted.] In 450 BC, the decemviri produced the laws on ten tablets (tabulae), but these laws were regarded as unsatisfactory by the plebeians. A second decemvirate is said to have added two further tablets in 449 BC. The new Law of the Twelve Tables was approved by the people's assembly. The original text of the Twelve Tables has not been preserved. The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC. The fragments which did survive show that it was not a law code in the modern sense. It did not provide a complete and coherent system of all applicable rules or give legal solutions for all possible cases. Rather, the tables contained specific provisions designed to change the then-existing customary law. Although the provisions pertain to all areas of law, the largest part is dedicated to private law and civil procedure. Laws include Lex Canuleia (445 BC; which allowed the marriage—ius connubii—between patricians and plebeians), Leges Licinae Sextiae (367 BC; which made restrictions on possession of public lands—ager publicus—and also made sure that one of the consuls was plebeian), Lex Ogulnia (300 BC; plebeians received access to priest posts), and Lex Hortensia (287 BC; verdicts of plebeian assemblies—plebiscita—now bind all people).

 

 

ENGLISH COMMON LAW

 

15.   The English common law originated in the early Middle Ages in the King’s Court (Curia Regis), a single royal court set up for most of the country at Westminster, near London. Like many other early legal systems, it did not originally consist of substantive rights but rather of procedural remedies.

16.   The Anglo-Saxons, especially after the accession of Alfred the Great (871), had developed a body of rules resembling those being used by the Germanic peoples of northern Europe. Local customs governed most matters, while the church played a large part in government. Crimes were treated as wrongs for which compensation was made to the victim.

 

17.   The common law of England was largely created in the period after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Normans spoke French and had developed a customary law in Normandy. They had no professional lawyers or judges; instead, literate clergymen acted as administrators. Some of the clergy were familiar with Roman law and the canon law of the Christian church, which was developed in the universities of the 12th century. Canon law was applied in the English church courts, but the revived Roman law was less influential in England than elsewhere, despite Norman dominance in government. This was due largely to the early sophistication of the Anglo-Norman system. Norman custom was not simply transplanted to England; upon its arrival, a new body of rules, based on local conditions, emerged. A period of colonial rule by the mainly Norman conquerors produced change. Land was allocated to feudal vassals of the king, many of whom had joined the conquest with this reward in mind. Serious wrongs were regarded mainly as public crimes rather than as personal matters, and the perpetrators were punished by death and forfeiture of property. The requirement that, in cases of sudden death, the local community should identify the body as English (“presentment of Englishry”)—and, therefore, of little account—or face heavy fines reveals a state of unrest between the Norman conquerors and their English subjects. Government was centralized, a bureaucracy built up, and written records maintained. Elements of the Anglo-Saxon system that survived were the jury, ordeals (trials by physical test or combat), the practice of outlawry (putting a person beyond the protection of the law), and writs (orders requiring a person to appear before a court. Important consolidation occurred during the reign of Henry II (1154–89). Royal officials roamed the country, inquiring about the administration of justice. Church and state were separate and had their own law and court systems. This led to centuries of rivalry over jurisdiction, especially since appeals from church courts, before the Reformation, could be taken to Rome.

 

18.   During the critical formative period of common law, the English economy depended largely on agriculture, and land was the most important form of wealth. A money economy was important only in commercial centres such as London, Norwich, and Bristol. Political power was rural and based on landownership. Land was held under a chain of feudal relations. Under the king came the aristocratic “tenantsin chief,” then strata of “mesne,” or intermediate tenants, and finally the tenant “in demesne,” who actually occupied the property. Each piece of land was held under a particular condition of tenure—that is, in return for a certain service or payment. Succession to tenancies was regulated by a system of different “estates,” or rights in land, which determined the duration of the tenant’s interest. Title to land was transferred by a formal ritual rather than by deed; this provided publicity for such transactions. Most of the rules governing the terms by which land was held were developed in local lord’s courts, which were held to manage the estates of the lord’s immediate tenants. The emergence of improved remedies in the King’s Court during the late 12th century led to the elaboration and standardization of these rules, which marked the effective origin of the common law.

19.   The pace of change in the 13th century led to the passage of statutes to regulate matters of detail. Because a significant proportion of disputes in the common-law courts were related to the occupation of land, the land law was the earliest area of law to elaborate a detailed set of substantive rules, eventually summarized in the first “textbook” of English law, Littleton’s Tenures, written by Sir Thomas Littleton and originally published in 1481. Primogeniture—i.e., the right of succession of the eldest son—became characteristic of the common law. It was designed only for knight-service tenures but was inappropriately extended to all land. This contrasted with the widespread practice on the Continent, whereby all children inherited equal shares.

20.   The unity and consistency of the common law were promoted by the early dominant position acquired by the royal courts. Whereas the earlier Saxon witan, or king’s council, dealt only with great affairs of state, the new Norman court assumed wide judicial powers. Its judges (clergy and statesmen) “declared” the common law. Royal judges went out to provincial towns “on circuit” and took the law of Westminster everywhere with them, both in civil and in criminal cases. Local customs received lip service, but the royal courts controlled them and often rejected them as unreasonable or unproved. Common law was presumed to apply everywhere until a local custom could be proved. This situation contrasted strikingly with that in France, where a monarch ruled a number of duchies and counties, each with its own customary law, as well as with that in Germany and Italy, where independent kingdoms and principalities were also governed by their own laws.

 

This early centralization also diminished the reception of Roman law in England, in contrast to most other countries of Europe after the decline of feudalism. The expression “common law,” devised to distinguish the general law from local or group customs and privileges, came to suggest to citizens a universal law, founded on reason and superior in type.

 

By the 13th century, three central courts—Exchequer, Common Pleas, and King’s Bench—applied the common law. Although the same law was applied in each court, they vied in offering better remedies to litigants in order to increase their fees.

 

The court machinery for civil cases was built around the writ system. Each writ was a written order in the king’s name issued from the king’s writing office, or chancery, at the instance of the complainant and ordering the defendant to appear in the royal courts or ordering some inferior court to see justice done. It was based on a form of action (i.e., on a particular type of complaint, such as trespass), and the right writ had to be selected to suit that form. Royal writs had to be used for all actions concerning title to land.

 

21.   Under Henry III (reigned 1216–72), an unknown royal official prepared an ambitious treatise, De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae (c. 1235; “On the Laws and Customs of England”). The text was later associated with the royal judge Henry de Bracton, who was assumed to be its author. It was modeled on the Institutiones (Institutes), the 6th-century Roman legal classic by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and shows some knowledge of Roman law. However, its character—as indicated by the space devoted to actions and procedure, to the reliance on judicial decisions in declaring the law, and to statements limiting absolute royal power—was English. Bracton abstracted several thousand cases from court records (plea rolls) as the raw material for his book. The plea rolls formed an almost unbroken series from 1189 and included the writ, pleadings, verdict, and judgment of each civil action. Edward I (reigned 1272–1307) has been called the English Justinian because his enactments had such an important influence on the law of the Middle Ages. Edward’s civil legislation, which amended the unwritten common law, remained for centuries as the basic statute law. It was supplemented by masses of specialized statutes that were passed to meet temporary problems.

 

Growth of chancery and equity

22.   Since legal rules cannot be formulated to deal adequately with every possible contingency, their mechanical application can sometimes result in injustice. In order to remedy such injustices, the law of equity (or, earlier, of “conscience”) was developed. The principle of equity was as old as the common law, but it was hardly needed until the 14th century, since the law was still relatively fluid and informal. It has been said that what was truly new was not equity but law. As the law became firmly established, however, its strict rules of proof (see evidence) began to cause hardship. Visible factors of proof, such as the open possession of land and the use of wax seals on documents, were stressed, and secret trusts and informal contracts were not recognized.

 

Power to grant relief in situations involving potential injustices lay with the king and was first exercised by the entire royal council. Within the council, the lord chancellor—a leading bishop—led the meetings and, probably as early as the reign of Richard II (1372–99), dealt personally with petitions for relief. Eventually the chancellor’s jurisdiction developed into the Court of Chancery, whose function was to administer equity. Much of the work concerned procedural delays and irregularities in local courts, but gradually the power to modify the operation of the rules of common law was asserted.

 

The chancellor decided each case on its merits and had the right to grant or refuse relief without giving reasons. Common grounds for relief, however, came to be recognized. They included fraud, breach of confidence, attempts to obtain payment twice, and unjust retention of property.

 

Proceedings began with bills being presented by the plaintiff in the vernacular language, not Latin; the defendant was then summoned by a writ of subpoena to appear for personal questioning by the chancellor or one of his subordinates. Refusal to appear or to satisfy a decree was punished by imprisonment. Because the defendant could file an answer, a system of written pleadings developed.

 

 

CANON LAW

 

23.   During the 12th Century, Pope Alexander III begins reforms that would lead to the establishment of “Canon Law” – ecclesiastical law laid down by papal pronouncements. Wikipedia defines Canon Law as “a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members.” SEE NOTE BELOW

 

24.   The fifteenth-century European legal corpus, by conceding dominium to infidels and pagans, implicitly recognized a sovereign African existence that preceded the human calculus transforming subjects into captives and slaves. Based on an established corpus of thought, law, and theology configuring Christian institutional relations with non-Christians, African polities wielded legal tender in the Christian imaginary. . . .

 

25.   Even as extra ecclesiam, Guinea’s inhabitants, both infidels and pagans, had natural rights. In asserting its authority over the extra ecclesiam, who, in turn, acquired additional obligations and rights, the Church complicated matters.

 

26.   At the most elemental level, natural law acknowledged native (African) sovereignty even as Christian thought, theology, and law sanctioned the enslavement of Africans. . . . .

 

27.   Christian territorial expansion lacked a firm legal basis in canon law.

 

28.   Pope Innocent IV raised the question, ‘Is it licit to invade the lands that infidels possess, and if it is licit, why is it licit?’  What interested him was the problem of whether or not Christians could legitimately seize land, other than the Holy Land, that the Moslems occupied. Did . . . Christians have a general right to dispossess infidels everywhere?’

 

29.   Innocent acknowledged that the law of nations had supplanted natural law in regulating human interaction, such as trade, conflict, and social hierarchies. Similarly, the prince replaced the father, as the ‘lawful authority in society’ through God’s provenance, manifesting his dominium in the monopoly over justice and sanctioned violence.

 

IT IS AT THIS JUNCTURE WHERE EUROPEAN PEOPLE, THROUGH POPE INNOCENT IV DECIDED TO SUSPEND THEIR RECOGNITION OF NATURAL IN FAVOR OF WHAT THEY CALLED “THE LAW OF NATIONS.” FROM THIS MOMENT ON, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS INSTEAD OF EACH INDIVIDUAL, NOW HAD “LAWFUL AUTHORITY” AND MONOPOLY OVER JUSTICE AND SANCTIONED VIOLENCE.

 

At this point, two different cultures, with two different legal codes, were in conflict - The Balanta and Natural Law vs. the Christian Europeans and their Canon Law/Law of Nations.

 

30.   Innocent delineated a temporal domain that was simultaneously autonomous yet subordinate to the Church.

 

31.   Laws of nations pertained to secular matters, a domain in which a significant tendency in the Church, known as ‘dualism,’ showed increasingly less interest. But in spiritual matters, the pope’s authority prevailed, since all humans were of Christ, though not with the Church. ‘As a result,’ the medievalist James Muldoon notes, ‘the pope’s pastoral responsibilities consisted of jurisdiction over two distinct flocks, one consisting of Christians and one comprising everyone else.’ Since the pope’s jurisdiction extended de jure over infidels, he alone could call for a Christian invasion of an infidel’s domain. Even then, however, Innocent maintained that only a violation of natural law could precipitate such an attack. By adhering to the beliefs of their gods, infidels and pagans did not violate natural law. Thus, such beliefs did not provide justification for Christians to simply invade non-Christian polities, dispossess its inhabitants of their territory and freedom, or force them to convert. Innocent IV’s theological contribution resided in the fact that he accorded pagans and infidels dominium and therefore the right to live beyond the state of grace. . . However, The Papal Bull Dum Diversas issued by Pope Nicholas V, June 18, 1452, stated,

we grant to you full and free power, through the Apostolic authority by this edict, to invade, conquer, fight, subjugate the Saracens and pagans, and other infidels and other enemies of Christ, and wherever established their Kingdoms, Duchies, Royal Palaces, Principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps and any other possessions, mobile and immobile goods found in all these places and held in whatever name, and held and possessed by the same Saracens, Pagans, infidels, and the enemies of Christ, also realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps, possessions of the king or prince or of the kings or princes, and to lead their persons in perpetual servitude, and to apply and appropriate realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, possessions and goods of this kind to you and your use and your successors the Kings of Portugal.”

 

PORTUGUESE INVASION OF GUINEA

 

32.   The Portuguese constantly had to contend with theoretical and practical recognition that Guinea did not represent terra nullius (land that is legally deemed to be unoccupied or uninhabited).

 

33.   The "law of nations" was neither natural law, which existed in nature and governed animals as well as humans, nor civil law, which was the body of laws specific to a people.

 

34.   All human beings are born free (liberi) under natural law, but slavery was held to be a practice common to all nations, who might then have specific civil laws pertaining to slaves.

 

35.   In ancient warfare, the victor had the right under the ius gentium to enslave a defeated population; however, if a settlement had been reached through diplomatic negotiations or formal surrender, the people were by custom to be spared violence and enslavement.

 

36.   The ius gentium was not a legal code, and any force it had depended on "reasoned compliance with standards of international conduct."

 

37.   Slavery violated our Balanta ancestors’ Great Belief and egalitarian society. We intentionally did not form centralized state societies because of the inequality it produced. Thus, our Balanta ancestors could not have been a party to any ius gentium, the customary international law held in common among all peoples pertaining to slavery because it violated our customs. Therefore, there could be no “reasoned compliance with standards of international conduct”. Not only was slavery “illegal”, it was unfathomable to our Balanta ancestors.

 

38.   As documented in the official royal account of the Portuguese initial contact with Balanta people, Gomes Eanes de Zurara’s The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Commissioned by the House of Avis unfolds, the Portuguese do not act in accordance to existing definitions of conquest.

 

39.   The Portuguese make no effort to contract a treaty so as to acquire a territorial claim to ‘the land of blacks.’

 

40.   The initial Portuguese encounter with the land of Guinea and Balanta people constituted chattel raids that were illegal by natural law, canon law, and the law of nations. Such raids underscore the commercial imperatives.

 

41.   The Church continued to accord infidels and pagans the right to have an existence beyond the state of grace, while consenting that those who had been legitimately enslaved could be reduced to chattel.

 

42.   The Portuguese gradually distinguished ‘Africa’ from ‘Guinea.’ In contrast to the ‘’land of the Moors’, Guinea, ‘the land of the blacks’, represented the more fertile region.

 

43.   Eventually the Portuguese rendered geographical dissimilarities into customary and ultimately juridical distinctions, separating Moors from blackamoors.

 

44.   In 1441, twenty-six years after the conquest of Ceuta, the Portuguese expedition under Antao Goncalves landed near Cabo Blanco in present-day Mauritania. Following a brief skirmish ‘in the land of Guinea’ with a ‘naked man following a camel’, the Portuguese enslaved their first Moor. . . . By their actions, the Portuguese launched the transatlantic slave trade in whose wake the early modern African diaspora emerged and in which the ‘slave’ constituted the charter subject. Through the capture of the “Mooress’, but in particular by marking her as distinct from the Moors on the basis of juridical status and phenotype, the Portuguese introduced a taxonomy that distinguished Moors from blackamoors, infidels from pagans, and Africans from blacks, sovereign from sovereignless subjects, and free persons from slaves. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese employed this human measure, formulated via a black woman’s body, so as to delineate who could be ‘legitimately’ enslaved.

 

45.   The Portuguese quickly equated status with sovereignty and the lack thereof with the legitimate enslavement of certain individuals. Though the Portuguese captured both Moors and the ‘black Mooress,’ they had already started distinguishing between sovereign ‘Moorish’ subjects and those ‘Moors,’ ‘Negros,’ and ‘black’ that they could legitimately enslave. Zurara observed that the ‘black Mooress,’ unlike the valiant yet vanquished ‘Moor,’ represented the ‘legitimately’ unfree. . . . As the Portuguese encountered more of Guinea’s inhabitants the terms ‘Black Moors’ ‘blacks,’ “Ethiops,’ ‘Guineas,’ and ‘Negroes,’ or the descriptive terms to which a religious signifier was appended such as ‘Moors. . . [who] were Gentiles’ and ‘pagans’ gradually constituted the rootless and sovereignless – and in many cases, simply ‘slaves’.

 

46.   Laws and practices shaping Church-state relations with nonbelievers in Europe set the precedent for Christian interaction with non-Christians in the wider Atlantic world.

 

 

CHARTERS

 

47.   A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the British Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but since the 14th century have only been used in place of private acts to grant a right or power to an individual or a body corporate.

 

48.   Charters have been used in Europe since medieval times to grant rights and privileges to towns, boroughs and cities. During the 14th and 15th century the concept of incorporation of a municipality by royal charter evolved.

 

49.   Between the 14th and 19th centuries, royal charters were used to create chartered companies – for-profit ventures with shareholders, used for exploration, trade and colonization. Early charters to such companies often granted trade monopolies, but this power was restricted to parliament from the end of the 17th century. Until the 19th century, royal charters were the only means other than an act of parliament by which a company could be incorporated

 

CORPORATE IDENTITIES AND NEW FORMS OF PERSONHOOD

 

50.   Beginning in the thirteenth century and in the context of the Reconquista, some Christian lords on the Iberian Peninsula started undermining the corporate bodies of Jews and Saracens by ordering those populations to adhere to Christian legal precepts and Iberian customary laws.

 

51.   By the thirteenth century, when the tide favored Christians, the victorious rulers displayed less willingness to respect Moorish and Jewish corporate institutions and practices. This intransigence flourished at the very moment that Castilian scholars rediscovered Roman civil law, which they codified along with their customary practices in the Siete Partidas. Following this legal transformation, the Christian monarchs continued restricting the judicial autonomy of their Jewish and Moorish subjects. In 1412, this culminated in the most draconian legislation to date when it ‘forbade Jews and Moslems alike to have their own judges. Thenceforth, their cases, civil and criminal, were to be tried before ordinary judges of the districts where they lived. Criminal cases were to be decided according to Christians custom. . . .’

 

52.   By their actions, Portuguese and Spanish Christian rulers contrived new forms of personhood. In a world defined by corporations with their accompanying rights and obligations, Jews and Moors embodied corporate-less beings that Christian authorities compelled to adhere to Christian laws and customary norms thereby forsaking their own legal traditions and customs.

 

53.   By undermining Jewish and Moorish courts, the Christian rulers redefined more than their relations to Jews and Moors.  As they dismantled the courts that had once enabled Jews and Moors to reproduce their distinctive juridical status, the Catholic sovereigns actually reconstituted the meaning of being a Jew or a Moor. Standing before Christian courts and officials whose rulings owed much to Christian ethics, the various diasporic populations – Jews, Moors, and Africans - lacked the protective shield of a culturally sanctioned corporate status.

 

54.   The main purpose of the Portuguese crown was always to exploit the Guinea trades to the highest royal advantage, but its methods varied, for different schemes were tried, according to the particular preference of the reigning king.

 

55.   Nevertheless, through all the superficial fluctuations of economic policy, we may discern a constant effort to make profit by the creation of monopolies.

 

56.   Private merchants, the subjects of soverigns who have no legal claim to Guinea, will equip ships to make the traffic in spite of papal prohibitions, Portuguese protests and threats, and the lurking dangers of the Ocean. . . .

 

57.   The events of the war with Castile had shown that, if the Guinea monopoly was to be upheld, steps must be taken to protect it. Moreover, there were signs of unwelcome activity in the ports of Flanders and England, and indications that Florentine, Genoese, English and Flemish merchants wanted to share in the gold trade. These reasons, combined with vague fears of what the future might have in store, drove the Portuguese, immediately after the return of Columbus from his first voyage of discovery to the west, to seek a confirmation of their monopoly. Their efforts were rewarded in 1493-4 by papal bulls and the Treaty of Tordesillas. . . .

 

58.   The two powers ceased, after 1494, to compete in West Africa. Nevertheless, a bilateral treaty was insufficient to deter the governments of France and England from encouraging their mariners to venture in the Guinea Traffic. . . .

 

59.   Fifty years of quiet consolidation in Guinea came to an abrupt end in 1530. . . . Portuguese merchants, thus left alone, seized the opportunity to build up a profitable trade, and Portuguese missionaries undertook the evangelization of many of the negro tribes. . . .

 

 

ENGLISH INVASION OF GUINEA

 

60.   Until 1553, the part played by Englishmen in West Africa was negligible.

 

61.   English traders henceforth made regular voyages to Guinea. The later struggles were the outcome of acts of pure aggression, perpetrated by groups of enterprising merchants and sailors in England and in France, against imperial Portugal. Dynamic interlopers assailed a static empire. . . . .

 

62.   Thus, by the law of nations and the Treaty of Tordesillas, French and English activities in Guinea and among the Balanta people were illegal.

 

63.   London merchants and Plymouth sailors now advanced religious arguments, as well as the argument of force, to support their clandestine operations in Guinea. Indeed, their operations ceased to be clandestine when Queen Elizabeth took the crown which Mary had worn so uneasily. They openly attacked the papal division of the world and declared a holy war for the liberation of the seas. . . . The catholic states in Europe were drawn together and their imperial policies coordinated.

 

64.   One of the salient features of this interaction was the association of those in high places with many of the illegal voyages to Guinea. . . . An examination of the personnel of those associated with the English voyages to Guinea reveals many highly placed officials, and demonstrates that the English government was, more than the French, definitely and openly sympathetic towards these enterprises.

 

65.   The men who were interested in Guinea clearly saw that trade, whatever its character, could be greatly facilitated by a permanent station in West Africa. The preeminence of Englishmen among the interlopers in the period from 1559 to 1571 is indicated by the fact that nearly all the contemporary projects of colonization in Guinea were of English origin.

 

LANCADOS AND AFRICAN COMPLICITY

 

66.   Europeans would have had to do business with the African ruling class through the intermediary of the Lancados. Consequently, commerce on the Upper Guinea Coast settled down into a pattern dominated by the lancados. The main business of the lancados and grumetes was slaving.

 

67.   The Portuguese government’s view of these settlers: they were Godless and would stand in the way of a Portuguese monopoly on trade from the region. Indeed, the government so feared this group that at the start of the sixteenth century it declared trading in Guinea without a license a capital offense. No person ‘irrespective of rank or station, should throw himself with the Negroes, nor under any circumstances, remain with the said Negroes, on pain of death. . . . .By the end of the sixteenth century, lancados were no longer considered outlaws. However, they continued to present problems for Portugal. On the one hand, they served as brokers for Portuguese and Cape Verdean ship captains. On the other hand, they were unconstrained by legislation prohibiting ‘interlopers’ – principally French and British ships – from trading in the region. Feeling no particular loyalty to Portugal, lancados traded with whomever they pleased, seeking the best price for their slaves and goods. . . .

 

68.   The most significant partnership was between the Europeans and the Mandinga, among the latter of whom were the principal agents of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Upper Guinea. Many of the resident ‘Portuguese’ traders were in fact mulattos of Portuguese and Mandinga extraction. These aspects of the social situation in Upper Guinea pointed to the fact that the majority of captives were exported through the agency of the Mandinga.

 

69.   It seems that while the main purpose of the raids was to obtain captives for sale to Europeans, Mandinga rulers regarded this as a means of disciplining recalcitrant subjects who refused to pay tribute or to recognize Mandinga supremacy. This was the manner in which the issues were posed in the late eighteenth century when the Mandinga ruler of Fogny was exploiting the Banhun and Djola of the Bintang and Casamance. He demanded tribute from them, and attacked when they refused to comply, selling large numbers as slaves.

 

70.   Both the slavers and the slaveowners who dealt with these Africans invariably referred to them collectively as escravos de ley. This name was born of the fiscal arrangement by which the Iberian monarch had a one-third interest in the sale price of these slaves, but it came to mean ‘slaves of the highest quality’.

 

71.   Diversity and unpredictability fueled the wars and encouraged the raids that produced thousands of captives. On this Rio de Sao Domingos [a small tributary of the Cacheu]’ Almada wrote in the late sixteenth century, ‘there are more slaves than in all the rest of Guinea since they take them [from] these nations – Banhuns, Buramos, Cassangas, Jabundos, Falupos, Arriatas and Balantas.’ Each of these groups was located within the ria coastline and close to the frontier of the powerful and expanding interior state of Kaabu. . . . In the closing years of the century, Cacheu replaced Sao Domingos as the most important entrepot on the Rio Cacheu. . . . The town began to attract increasing numbers of lancados in large part because area Papel recognized the advantages of allying themselves with them. Thus, Papel did all they could to make lancados feel welcome and comfortable. . . .

 

72.   About 135 kilometers upriver from Cacheu, Farim was also an important port on the Cacheu. Farim sat at the ria coastline’s edge and attracted a great number of Mandinka merchants, who dubbed the town Tubabodaga, or ‘White Man’s Village.’ There lancados met with Mande-speaking traders, most of whom were from Kaabu. Connections to Mandinka at Farim were crucial to the success of lancado merchants, particularly in the seventeenth century. This was a period of expansion of both the Kaabu empire and the Atlantic slave trade. Slaves taken in Kaabu’s wars were sold to lancados at Farim and then shipped west to Cacheu, where they were put aboard vessels bound for the Cape Verde Islands and points beyond.

 

73.   The allure of European imports also drew the Papel of Bissau into the trade in slaves. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Papel found guilty of various crimes, especially adultery, were subject to being sold to ship captains. Papel found other ways to profit from the New World’s demand for laborers. In 1605, Barreira said that a Papel chief’s son on Bissau was loath to become Christian ‘because, if he did so, he would have to give up ‘roping them in,’ that is, attacking and enslaving blacks.’ In 1686, Spanish Capuchins described how bands of Papel left the island and raided coastal communities, bringing captives back. ‘Usually,’ a Capuchin said, ‘the Papel depart in their canoes and plunder and pirate men on the shores of the sea and inland.’ Papel slavers explained that ‘they abduct men because the whites buy them.’ . . .

 

74.   The idea of commerce with the Europeans and the acceptance of the European presence did not find a universal and simultaneous welcome. Indeed, some tribes displayed chronic hostility towards the Europeans; The Djolas were in this latter category. . . . Another group, the Balantas, were so hostile that the belief was widespread among the Europeans on the coast that the Balantas killed all white men that they caught.

 

75.   The Europeans always dealt with the kings, chiefs, and nobles of the Upper Guinea Coast. . . . Each resident trader placed himself under the protection of an African ruler; and there was an understanding on mutual rights and obligations. . . .

 

 

THE 16TH CENTURY LEGAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND

 

76.   Throughout Europe, the 16th century was a period of considerable change in the law. In part a reaction by the learned against the law of the past—which was seen to be too dependent upon ancient Roman models or local Germanic custom—the changes usually took the form of an explicit commitment to improved procedures, above all written rather than oral. One consequence was the increased influence of universities and university-trained lawyers. In England, the old customary law applied by the central courts at Westminster was too firmly entrenched to be lightly overthrown, but even here the development of written pleadings and new, speedier remedies had a transforming effect. The aforementioned prerogative, or conciliar, courts, together with the Court of Chancery, competed with common-law courts for jurisdiction over the same cases and followed a written procedure modeled after that still being used on the Continent. Roman law and canon law were taught at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which awarded doctorates to the practitioners in these courts.

 

77.   The Tudors made use of proclamations by the king to invoke emergency measures, to establish detailed regulations, especially on economic matters, and to grant royal charters to trading companies. Parliament passed laws of a political nature, such as those enforcing the king’s supremacy over the newly established Church of England. Statutes also regulated imports and exports, controlled farming, and defined what was unfair competition. A law of 1562–63 regulated apprenticeships and provided for annual wage fixing by magistrates in accordance with the cost of living. There were other important statutory innovations during these years. The Statute of Monopolies of 1623 confirmed that monopolies were contrary to common law but made exceptions for patentable inventions, and a statute of 1601 became the basis of the privileges enjoyed by charitable trusts.

 

78.   In 1615 King James I declared that the chancery was to retain its traditional superiority over the common-law courts, but only in areas in which its authority was well recognized. If the applicability of equity was in doubt, the common law was to be followed.

 

79.   Of extraordinary influence in the development of common law and in its dissemination to other parts of the world was the most famous of English jurists, Sir William Blackstone. He was born in 1723, entered the bar in 1746, and in 1758 became the first person to lecture on English law at an English university. His most influential work, the Commentaries on the Laws of England, was published between 1765 and 1769 and consisted of four books: Of the Rights of Persons dealt with family and public law; Of the Rights of Things gave a brilliant outline of real-property law; Of Private Wrongs covered civil liability, courts, and procedure; and Of Public Wrongs was an excellent study of criminal law. Lawyers and laymen alike came to regard it as an authoritative exposition of the law. In the following century, the fame of Blackstone was even greater in the United States than in his native land. After the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the Commentaries became the chief source of knowledge of English law in the New World.

 

 

EARLY RECORD OF ENCOUNTERS IN BALANTALAND

 

80.   1594 Earliest account of the Balantas (by name) in written records, Andre Alvares Almada, Trato breve dos rios de Guine, trans. P.E.H. Hair - “The Creek of the Balantas penetrates inland at the furthest point of the land of the Buramos [Brame]. The Balantas are fairly savage blacks.”

 

81.   1615, Manuel Alvares commented, ‘They [Balantas] have no principle king. Whoever has more power is king, and every quarter of a league there are many of this kind.’

 

82.   1618 English Company of Adventurers is chartered for trade in gold and slaves. The company builds a fort on James Island in the River Gambia to rival the Portuguese in Casamance and Guinea.

 

83.   1619 Slave traders allowed to pay crown tax directly at Cacheu and bypass the slave tax paid in the Cape Verde Islands.

 

84.   1627, Alonso de Sandoval wrote that ‘Balanta were ‘a cruel people, [a] race without a king.’

 

85.   1672 Formation of the English Royal African Company

 

86.   1676 Formation of Companhia de Cacheu, Rios e Comercio da Guine to provide taxes and slaves for the Portuguese Crown, and approve the capitao-mor, who is Antonio de Barros Bezerra and the main shareholder of the company, which failed in 1682. The individuals from Santiago and Cacheu who formed it were to reinforce Cacheu’s stockade and man it with soldiers. Duties collected on local trade and a portion of tax revenues on slave exports were to accrue to the company. . . . In 1690, a second Company of Cacheu was incorporated, and the Portuguese government negotiated an agreement to supply slaves to Spanish America. . . .

 

87.   1684 Francisco de Lemos Coelho says that much of the territory of the Balanta ‘has not been navigated, nor does it have kings of consideration.’

 

88.   1750’s Merchants of Grao Para and Maranhao (Brazil) call for an increase in its slave imports from Guinea for sugar, cotton, rice and cacao production and are authorized by the Crown to form a slave trading and commercial company.

 

89.   1776 The American Revolutionary War begins, and Americans increase imports of rice and cotton from Maranhao, which requires more slaves from Guinea. Slaves are generated as the revivalist Fula Muslims complete the formation of the Imamate of Futa Toro and bring an end to the Denianke lineage in Futa Toro.

 

90.   At no time was the concentration of wealth in the hands of members of the b’alante b’ndang (or any other group) ever so pronounced that it led to the crystallization of an elite class. Therefore, it was impossible for outside forces to gain influence over Balanta culture without direct conquest and the commitment of military resources.

 

 

 

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND “LEGAL’ JURISDICTIONS

https://study.com/academy/lesson/colonial-government-forms-charter-proprietary-royal-colonies.html

 

91.   Colonial governments assumed one of three forms: charterproprietary, or royal. Charter colonies were governed by joint stock companies, which received charters from the king and enjoyed quite a bit of self-government. Proprietary colonies were granted by the king to a proprietor or head of a proprietary family, who owned the colony by title and governed it as he saw fit. Royal colonies were controlled by the king through his representative, the royal governor.

 

92.   Charter colonies (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts) were governed by corporations called joint stock companies. Individuals hoping to make a profit purchased stock in these companies to finance colonization. When a company had enough money, it applied to the king for a charter, which is an agreement between the monarch and a colony that lays out the rights and responsibilities of both parties. If the king granted a charter, the company recruited colonists, set up a government, and founded a colony. Charter colonies often enjoyed a higher level of self-government than other colonies. The joint stock company-controlled land distribution and took an active role in colonial government. Colonists tended to prefer this form of colonial government because of the freedom it allowed, but only Connecticut and Rhode Island were still charter colonies by the time of the American Revolution. Massachusetts had also been a charter colony for many years until the king decided he wanted more control and revoked the charter.

 

93.    Proprietary colonies (Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware) were granted by the king directly to an individual or family. The proprietor or head of the proprietary family governed the colony as he saw fit. Technically, he had to report to the king, but in practice, he usually had quite a bit of independence. One important proprietor was William Penn. The King of England at the time, Charles II, granted Penn the land that Penn would use to found the colony of Pennsylvania. The proprietor, who officially owned his colony by title, could make laws, grant land, collect rents and fees, establish towns, create legislative bodies and courts, and authorize churches. Colonists turned to the proprietor for leadership and justice and were usually satisfied with the results.

 

94.   Royal colonies (Virginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia) were directly controlled by the king, who was represented by a royal governor. Through the governor and his council, the king controlled land grants and sales, taxation, and the law. Colonists could elect their own assemblies to pass local ordinances and laws, but the royal governor had complete veto power over these assemblies and their decisions. He could even dissolve them if he chose to. Royal colonies existed for the benefit of the king, who, of course, preferred this style of colonial government above all others. Colonists, on the other hand, often became frustrated with the royal colony system and rebelled at its tight control. At the time of the American Revolution, royal colonies included Virginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

 

PLYMOUTH COLONY

 

95.   The first settlement in New England was Plymouth Colony. It was chartered by a group of Puritan separatists initially known as the Brownist Emigration and commonly referred to as the Pilgrims who arrived via the Mayflower in 1620 with 102 passengers. After a rough start, they were happy in Plymouth. They could practice their own form of Christianity without bothering anyone else, and they had plenty of food thanks to their friendly Wampanoag neighbors.

 

96.   The Mayflower was originally bound for the Colony of Virginia, financed by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, a trading company founded in the City of London in the early 15th century. It brought together leading merchants in a regulated company in the nature of a guild. In the early seventeenth century, similar groups of investors were formed to develop overseas trade and colonies in the New World: the Virginia Company (which later split into the London Company settling Jamestown and the Chesapeake Bay area, and the Plymouth Company, an English joint-stock company founded in 1606 by James I of England as a company of Knights, merchants, adventurers, and planters of the cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.

Plymouth and London Company.JPG

 

The company received its royal charter from King Henry IV in 1407, but its roots may go back to the Fraternity of St. Thomas of Canterbury. It claimed to have liberties existing as early as 1216. The Duke of Brabant granted privileges and in return promised no fees to trading merchants. The company was chiefly chartered to the English merchants at Antwerp in 1305. This body may have included the Staplers, who exported raw wool, as well as the Merchant Adventurers. Henry IV's charter was in favor of the English merchants dwelling in Holland, Zeeland, Brabant, and Flanders. Other groups of merchants traded to different parts of northern Europe, including merchants dwelling in Prussia, Scania, the Sound, and the Hanseatic League (whose election of a governor was approved by Richard II of England in 1391), and the English Merchants in Norway, Sweden and Denmark (who received a charter in 1408).

 

Under the charter of 1564, the company's court consisted of a governor (elected annually by members beyond the seas), his deputies, and 24 Assistants. Admission was by patrimony (being the son of a merchant who was free of the company at the time of the son's birth), service (apprenticeship to a member), redemption (purchase) or 'free gift'. By the time of the accession of James I in 1603, there were at least 200 members. They gradually increased the fees for admission.

 

Council for New England

 

The Council for New England was the name of a 17th-century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America. The Council was established in November of 1620 and was disbanded (although with no apparent changes in land titles) in 1635. It provided for the establishment of the Plymouth Colony, the State of New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony, and the eventual State of Maine. It was largely the creation of Sir Ferdinand Gorges.

Some of the persons involved had previously received a charter in 1606 as the Plymouth Company and had founded the short-lived Popham Colony within the territory of northern Virginia (actually in present-day Maine in the United States). The company had fallen into disuse following the abandonment of the 1607 colony. The Council was re-established after, with support from Gorges, (1) Captain John Smith had completed a thorough survey of the Atlantic side of New England (and named it such), (2) Richard Vines over-wintered in 1616, off the Maine coast and discovered that a plague was decimating Native Americans and (3) a friendly English speaking local Native American had been placed in the most likely colonization spot.

In the new 1620 charter granted by James I, the company was given rights of settlement in the area now designated as New England, which was the land previously part of the Virginia Colony north of the 40th parallel, and extending to the 48th parallel.  In 1622 the Plymouth Council issued a land grant to John Mason which ultimately evolved into the Province of New Hampshire.

Plymouth Council.png

 

97.   Storms forced the Mayflower to anchor at the hook of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, instead of Virginia, as it was unwise to continue with provisions running short. This inspired some of the non-Puritan passengers (whom the Puritans referred to as "Strangers") to proclaim that they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them" since they would not be settling in the agreed-upon Virginia territory. To prevent this, the Pilgrims determined to establish their own government, while still affirming their allegiance to the Crown of England. Thus, the Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the community's rules and regulations for the sake of order and survival:

 

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. “

 

 

MASSACHUESETTS BAY COLONY

 

98.   But just a few years later a second Northeast colony was chartered, overwhelming Plymouth in 1628. Soon, about 400 strict, religious Puritans arrived. They were called Puritans because they felt it was their God-given duty to purify the church from the influences of Roman Catholicism. In Europe, the Puritans were actually a huge group with a lot of political influence, but a new English king was aggressively persecuting them, leading to civil war. Within a decade, 20,000 Puritans immigrated to America. Massachusetts Bay Colony had arrived. In 1630, the first wave of Puritans met up with survivors from an abandoned colony and renamed the little settlement Salem and its Governor was John Winthrop.

 

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company which had established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann in 1623. The colony began in 1628 and was the company's second attempt at colonization. It was successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s. The population was strongly Puritan, and its governance was dominated by a small group of leaders who were strongly influenced by Puritan teachings. Its governors were elected, and the electorate were limited to freemen who had been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to the local church. 

The colony was not a democracy, it was a theocracy - for the purpose of serving God and increasing His kingdom, not to let people live however they saw fit. Any challenge to the Church's authority undermined the colony's mission and all that they had worked so hard to accomplish. Any person who challenged the strict practices of their faith was literally thrown out of the colony. This would have been a death sentence to individuals in the early years.

 

COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND

 

99.   Roger Williams was one of these unlucky Puritans. He didn't agree with the practice of legally punishing citizens for breaking religious rules, and as a preacher, he taught that the land of New England rightfully belonged to the Natives, not the King or colony. In 1635, Roger Williams was convicted of teaching diverse, new and dangerous opinions. He was ordered to leave Massachusetts before the spring. But since Williams wouldn't keep his opinions to himself throughout the winter, the leaders of Salem decided to arrest him immediately and send him to England, where he was also likely to face imprisonment because of the Civil War. Instead, he fled into the wilderness alone. He was discovered in the snow, nearly frozen, by some Wampanoag. They nursed him back to health, and Chief Massasoit even gave him some land. Unfortunately, it was still inside the colonial charter, so Williams moved on yet again. This time, he purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established a settlement he called Providence in 1636. As you might expect, his colony guaranteed wide personal and religious freedom. Roger Williams was joined by his family and twelve followers.

 

Two years later, a Massachusetts woman named Anne Hutchinson got in trouble with the church in Boston. Unusually well-educated by her father, who was a minister, Hutchinson started hosting a discussion group for women in her home to talk about the sermons they had heard in church on Sunday. But because she sometimes criticized the preachers and sometimes taught men, she came under scrutiny. At her trial and sentencing, officials told her, 'You have stepped out of your place, you have rather been a husband than a wife, a preacher than a hearer … you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society.' Even before her trial ended, Anne Hutchinson's family and several close friends signed a compact and agreed to leave Massachusetts. Roger Williams convinced them to come to Narragansett Bay, where they also purchased land and founded the town of Portsmouth. Hutchinson joined them after her sentencing in 1638.

A few years later, Roger Williams successfully combined Portsmouth, Providence and some other small communities into the colony of Rhode Island. 

 

CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE COLONIES

100.           Back in 1636, a preacher named Thomas Hooker led some Puritans out of Massachusetts because he disagreed with how the colony limited voting rights. Hooker and his followers founded the colony of Connecticut. The following year, another group of Puritans left Massachusetts because they thought it wasn't being strict enough! Their colony, New Haven, and some other settlements were soon absorbed into Connecticut. The last of the New England colonies to be formed was New Hampshire. It was chartered by the King directly in 1679 simply because Massachusetts was growing too large.

 

101.  The northern and southern American colonies had plenty of differences, but one thing they all pretty much had in common was ancestry. Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, the Carolinas and Georgia were all founded by Englishmen, settled by people of English descent and remained under English control throughout the colonial period. This could not be said of the middle colonies (New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania).

 

What led to the use of slavery and the creation of different colonies?

 

102.     Virginia was started by a group of men in 1607 who wanted to get rich quick. Even through the 1620s, ¾ of Virginia's population was still male, and the goal of the colony was still money. This was achieved through large farms called plantations that planted cash crops - namely, tobacco.

But tobacco requires a lot of manpower, and Jamestown had a population problem. The birth rate was low, and the death rate was high. England had the opposite problem: there were too many people. There was not enough work, no chance to own land and no opportunity for the poor. Even some rich kids faced this dilemma, because English inheritance laws required that all property be passed to the oldest son - and England was full. The younger sons of the noblemen had plenty of money, but no land to build their own estates.

An English politician named Edwin Sandys proposed a solution called the headright system. Anyone who paid for the trip to Virginia received 50 acres. So the rich guys paid for poor people to come with them as servants. These servants were indentured to the landowner, typically for seven years. The gentlemen got the land and free workers for seven years. The lucky 15% of servants who survived their indenture had almost nothing. As a result, Sandys' system created class divisions between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.'

A deep social divide quickly overtook Virginia. Wealthy planters owned all of the best land and controlled all of society. Though the House of Burgesses was an elected government, only landowning men could vote.

 

Bacon's Rebellion

103.     Many former indentured servants - both black and white - headed out onto the western frontier where they fought constantly with the natives. In Jamestown, the leaders ignored their pleas for help. So they took matters into their own hands. A frontier planter named Nathaniel Bacon organized a militia to take revenge on the Indians. When the governor ordered him to stop, the frontiersmen felt like the upper class had absolutely no regard for them. Bacon's army turned into a rebellion against colonial leadership. In 1676, the frontier militia marched into Jamestown, trashed the governor's home and burned the capitol. Nathaniel Bacon died of dysentery, so the rebellion fell apart. But it wasn't without consequence. To weaken the power of the lower class, the House of Burgesses granted all free white men the right to vote, dividing society along color lines. Bacon's Rebellion also helped turn planters away from indentured servitude and towards slavery.

 

MARYLAND

104.     Back in 1632, two communities dominated America: the money-hungry colony of Virginia and the Puritan refuge of Massachusetts. Civil war in England had driven thousands of Puritans to the northern colony. This same war also led a man named Cecilius or Cecil Calvert (whose title was Lord Baltimore) to start a new American colony for Catholics. He called the colony Maryland, and it resembled Virginia in many ways, including tobacco plantations, indentured servants and slave labor and high mortality. A settler in Maryland lived ten years less than someone in New England. Despite Calvert's plan, Maryland had a Protestant majority. To protect the Catholics, he approved the Act of Religious Toleration in 1649, guaranteeing political rights to anyone practicing any form of Christianity. But that same year, the king of England was beheaded and Puritans took over the English government. Within a few years, they took over Maryland and overturned that law.

 

THE CAROLINAS

105.        The Puritan government of England lasted just 11 years. The monarchy was restored and the newly crowned King Charles II decided to reward eight of his supporters by giving them a colony in 1663. The eight owners (called proprietors) named it Carolina in his honor. Like most of the American colonies, Carolina was already inhabited, but not just by Native Americans. Some former indentured servants from Virginia had migrated into the northern part of the land at least ten years before the charter was granted. The southern part was inhabited by poor farmers who had been run off of the island colony of Barbados by wealthy planters. Their crops wouldn't grow in America, but they figured out that hogs thrived with almost no overhead cost.

 

In 1670, a shipload of rich men also arrived from Barbados. They came for the same reason that rich, young men had gone to Virginia: there was just no land left for them on the island. They founded the Port of Charlestown and sold pork to Barbados in exchange for slaves.

 

Soon, Carolina's economy was transformed by the introduction of rice as a cash crop, but growing it requires specialized knowledge. When planters realized that slaves imported directly from West Africa were already skilled in growing rice, the scramble for land - and the laborers who knew how to work it - was on. By 1708, Africans became the majority of the population. The more money slaves made for their owners, the more the Southern elite were committed to slavery and its permanence.

 

By contrast, North Carolina didn't have any cash crops. But even if it did, it would've had difficulty exporting anything without a deep water port and only one river that flowed directly into the ocean. So the region attracted very few colonists from overseas. A few Welsh and Scottish immigrants settled up the Cape Fear River, but most of the northern settlers were poor farmers from other areas in search of fertile land. With greater diversity, no exports and no cash crops, North Carolina was much less committed to slavery than South Carolina. The two regions split officially in 1729.

 

GEORGIA

106.        Slaves in South Carolina learned that if they could survive the dangerous journey through the swamps, Florida promised them their freedom. Thousands of slaves attempted to escape. But Carolina also had another problem: the Spanish in Florida kept attacking them. The utopian vision of a British gentleman intervened to solve both problems. James Oglethorpe believed that even the worst people in society could succeed, given the same opportunity. So he asked the King for a charter to settle a colony of people from debtors' prison. In one stroke, the King was able to buffer South Carolina from Spanish attack and create an obstacle for escaping slaves. In 1733, more than a century after Virginia was established, the colony of Georgia was settled.

 

Oglethorpe intended for Georgia to be a utopia of hard work and social equality, so he outlawed slavery and large landholdings. As a result of these restrictions (and because England wouldn't let its debtors out of prison), Georgia attracted very few settlers, and those who did come complained constantly about their situation. Colonists started moving to South Carolina, so within two decades, Oglethorpe lifted the restrictions, and his utopia turned into a society that looked very much like South Carolina with a plantation economy based on rice.

 

 

LEGAL JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES

 

General Charters

·  1492 - Priviledges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus; April 30

·  1498 - The Letters Patents of King Henry the Seventh Granted unto Iohn Cabot and his Three Sonnes, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius for the the Discouerie of New and Unknowen Lands; March 5

·  1578 - Letters Patent to Sir Humfrey Gylberte June 11

·  1584 - Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh; March 25

·  1603 - Charter of Acadia Granted by Henry IV of France to Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Monts; December 18

·  1614 - General Charter for Those who Discover Any New Passages, Havens, Countries, or Places; March 27

·  1614 - Grant of Exclusive Trade to New Netherland by the States-General of the United Netherlands; October 11

·  1619/20 - Petition for a Charter of New England by the Northern Company of Adventurers; March 3

·  1621 - Charter of the Dutch West India Company; June 3

·  1624 - Warrant for William Ussling to Establish a General Company for Trade to Asia, Africa, America and Magellanica; December 21

·  1626 - Charter of Privileges which Gustavus Adolphus Has Graciously Given by Letters Patent to the Newly Established Swedish South Company; June 14

·  1629 - Grant of Land North of the Saco River to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonighton by the Council for New England; February 12

·  1629 - Sir Robert Heath's Patent 5 Charles 1st; October, 30

·  1634 - Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations; April 28

·  1635 - Declaration for Resignation of the Charter by the Council for New England; April 25

·  1635 - Confirmation of the Grant from the Council for New England to Captain John Mason

·  1637 - Proclamation Against the Disorderly Transporting His Majesty's subjects to the Plantations Within the Parts of America; April 30

·  1637 - Commission to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Governor of New England by Charles ; July 23

Connecticut

·  1639 - Fundamental Orders; January 14

·  1639 - Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven, June 4

·  1643 - Government of New Haven Colony

·  1662 - Charter of Connecticut

Delaware

·  1701 - Charter of Delaware

·  1776 - Constitution of Delaware

Georgia

·  1732 - Charter of Georgia

·  1777 - Constitution of Georgia; February 5

Maine

·  1622 - A Grant of the Province of Maine to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, esq., 10th of August

·  1639 - Grant of the Province of Maine

·  1664 - Grant of the Province of Maine

·  1674 - Grant of the Province of Maine

Maryland

·  1632 - Charter of Maryland

·  1776 - Constitution of Maryland; November 11

·  Amendments to the Maryland Constitution of 1776

Massachusetts

·  1620 - The Charter of New England

·  1620 - Agreement Between the Settlers at New Plymouth

·  1629 - Charter of the Colony of New Plymouth Granted to William Bradford and His Associates

·  1629 - The Charter of Massachusetts Bay

·  1635 - The Act of Surrender of the Great Charter of New England to His Majesty

·  1640 - William Bradford, &c. Surrender of the Patent of Plymouth Colony to the Freeman, March 2D

·  1688 - Commission of Sir Edmund Andros for the Dominion of New England. April 7

·  1691 - The Charter of Massachusetts Bay. October 7

·  1725 - Explanatory Charter of Massachusetts Bay - August 26

New Hampshire

·  1629 - Grant of Hampshire to Capt. John Mason, 7th of Novemr.

·  1629 - Grant of Laconia to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason by the Council for New England; November 17

·  1635 - Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to John Wollaston, Esq.,

·  1635 - Grant of the Province of New Hampshire From Mr. Wollaston to Mr. Mason, 11th June

·  1635 - Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, 22 April , By the Name of Masonia

·  1635 - Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, 22 Apr., By the Name of New Hampshire

·  1635 - Grant of His Interest in New Hampshire by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to Captain John Mason; September 17

·  1639 - Agreement of the Settlers at Exeter in New Hampshire

·  1641 - The Combinations of the Inhabitants Upon the Piscataqua River for Government

·  1680 - Commission of John Cutt

·  1776 - Constitution of New Hampshire

New Jersey

·  1664 - The Duke of York's Release to John Ford Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, 24th of June

·  1664 - The Concession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Caesarea, or New Jersey, to and With All and Every the Adventurers and All Such as Shall Settle or Plant There

·  1672 - A Declaration of the True Intent and Meaning of us the Lords Proprietors, and Explanation of There Concessions Made to the Adventurers and Planters of New Caesarea or New Jersey

·  1674 - His Royal Highness's Grant to the Lords Proprietors, Sir George Carteret, 29th July

·  1676 - The Charter or Fundamental Laws, of West New Jersey, Agreed Upon

·  1676 - Quintipartite Deed of Revision, Between E. and W Jersey: July 1st

·  1680 - Duke of York's Second Grant to William Penn, Gawn Lawry, Nicholas Lucas, John Eldridge, Edmund Warner, and Edward Byllynge, for the Soil and Government of West New Jersey-August 6

·  1681 - Province of West New-Jersey, in America, The 25th of the Ninth Month Called November

·  1682 - Duke of York's Confirmation to the 24 Proprietors: 14th of March

·  1683 - The Fundamental Constitutions for the Province of East New Jersey in America

·  1683 - The King's Letter Recognizing the Proprietors' Right to the Soil and Government

·  1702 - Surrender from the Proprietors of East and West New Jersey, of Their Pretended Right of Government to Her Majesty

·  1709 - The Queen's Acceptance of the Surrender of Government; April 17

·  1712 - Charles II's Grant of New England to the Duke of York, 1676 - Exemplified by Queen Anne

·  1776 - Constitution of New Jersey

New York

·  1626 - Notification of the Purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch; November 5

·  1777 - The Constitution of New York : April 20

North Carolina

·  1663 - Charter of Carolina : March 24

·  1663 - A Declaration and Proposals of the Lord Proprietor of Carolina, Aug. 25-Sept. 4

·  1665 - Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina

·  1665 - Charter of Carolina; June 30

·  1669 - The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina : March 1

·  1775 - The Mecklenburgh Resolutions : May 20

·  1776 - Constitution of North Carolina : December 18

Pennsylvania

·  1681 - Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania : February 28

·  1681 - Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania - July 11,

·  1682 - Penn's Charter of Libertie - April 25

·  1682 - Frame of Government of Pennsylvania - May 5

·  1683 - Frame of Government of Pennsylvania - February 2

·  1696 - Frame of Government of Pennsylvania

·  1701 - Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn, esq. to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Territories, October 28

·  1776 - Constitution of Pennsylvania - September 28

Rhode Island

·  1640 - Plantation Agreement at Providence August 27 - September 6

·  1641 - Government of Rhode Island-March 16-19

·  1643 - Patent for Providence Plantations - March 14

·  1663 - Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - July 15

South Carolina

·  1776 - Constitution of South Carolina - March 26

·  1778 - Constitution of South Carolina - March 19

Vermont

·  1777 - Constitution of Vermont - July 8

·  1786 - Constitution of Vermont - July 4

·  1791 - Admission of the State of Vermont - February 18

Virginia

·  1606 - The First Charter of Virginia; April 10

·  1609 - The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23

·  1611 - The Third Charter of Virginia; March 12

·  1621 - Ordinances for Virginia; July 24-August 3

 

Note: Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in its primary sense does not signify jurisdiction over ecclesiastics ("church leadership"), but jurisdiction exercised by church leaders over other leaders and over the laity.

Jurisdiction is a word borrowed from the legal system which has acquired a wide extension in theology, wherein, for example, it is frequently used in contradistinction to order, to express the right to administer sacraments as something added onto the power to celebrate them. So it is used to express the territorial or other limits of ecclesiastical, executive or legislative authority. Here it is used as the authority by which judicial officers investigate and decide cases under Canon law.

Such authority in the minds of lay Roman lawyers who first used this word jurisdiction was essentially temporal in its origin and in its sphere. The Christian Church transferred the notion to the spiritual domain as part of the general idea of a Kingdom of God focusing on the spiritual side of man upon earth.

It was viewed as also ordained of God, who had dominion over his temporal estate. As the Church in the earliest ages had executive and legislative power in its own spiritual sphere, so also it had judicial officers, investigating and deciding cases. Before its union with the State, its power in this direction, as in others, was merely over the spirits of men. Coercive temporal authority over their bodies or estates could only be given by concession from the temporal ruler. Moreover, even spiritual authority over members of the Church, i.e. baptized persons, could not be exclusively claimed as a right by the Church tribunals, if the subject matter of the cause were purely temporal.

It is customary to speak of a threefold office of the Church: the office of teaching (prophetic office), the priestly office and the pastoral office (governing office), and therefore of the threefold authority of the Church: the teaching authority, ministerial authority and ruling authority. Since the teaching of the Church is authoritative, the teaching authority is traditionally included in the ruling authority; then only the ministerial authority and the ruling authority are distinguished.

By ministerial authority, which is conferred by an act of consecration, is meant the inward, and because of its indelible character permanent, capacity to perform acts by which Divine grace is transmitted. By ruling authority, which is conferred by the Church (missio canonica, canonical mission), is understood the authority to guide and rule the Church of God. Jurisdiction, insofar as it covers the relations of man to God, is called jurisdiction of the internal forum or jurisdiction of the forum of Heaven (jurisdictio poli). (See Ecclesiastical Forum); this again is either sacramental or penitential, so far as it is used in the Sacrament of Penance, or extra-sacramental, e.g. in granting dispensations from private vows. Jurisdiction, insofar as it regulates external ecclesiastical relations, is called jurisdiction of the external forum, or briefly jurisdictio fori. This jurisdiction, the actual power of ruling is legislative, judicial or coactive. Jurisdiction can be possessed in varying degrees. It can also be held either for both fora, or for the internal forum only, e.g. by the parish priest.

Jurisdiction can be further sub-divided into ordinary, quasi-ordinary and delegated jurisdiction. Ordinary jurisdiction is that which is permanently bound, by Divine law or human law, with a permanent ecclesiastical office. Its possessor is called an ordinary judge. By Divine law the pope has such ordinary jurisdiction for the entire Church and a bishop for his diocese. By human law this jurisdiction is possessed by the cardinals, officials of the Roman Curia and the congregations of cardinals, the patriarchs, primates, metropolitans, archbishops, the praelati nullius and prelates with quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, the chapters of orders or the superior generals of orders, cathedral chapters in reference to their own affairs, the archdiaconate in the Middle Ages, and parish priests in the internal forum.

If however jurisdiction is permanently connected with an office, but the office itself is said to be quasi-ordinary, or jurisdictio vicaria. This form of jurisdiction is possessed, for example, by a vicar-general. Temporary exercise of ordinary and quasi-ordinary jurisdiction can be granted, in varying degrees, to another as representative, without conferring on him an office properly so called. In this transient form jurisdiction is called delegated or extraordinary, and concerning it canon law, following the Roman law, has developed exhaustive provisions. This development began when the popes, especially since Alexander III (1159–81), found themselves obliged, by the enormous mass of legal business which came to them from all sides as the "judices ordinarii omnium" to hand over, with proper instruction, a large number of cases to third parties for decision, especially in matters of contentious jurisdiction.

Delegated jurisdiction rests either on a special authorization of the holders of ordinary jurisdiction (delegatio ab homine), or on a general law (delegatio a lege, a jure, a canone). Thus, the Council of Trent transferred a number of papal rights to the bishops "tanquam Apostolicae Sedis delegati", i.e. also as delegates of the Apostolic See, and "etiam tanquam Apostolicae Sedis delegati", i.e. also as delegates of the Apostolic See. In the first class of cases, bishops do not possess ordinary jurisdiction. The meaning of the second expression is disputed, but it is generally taken as purely cumulative. If the delegation applies to one or several designated cases only, it is special delegation; if it applies to an entire class of subjects, it is then general delegation or delegation for the universality of causes. Delegated jurisdiction for the total of a number of matters is known as delegatio mandata. Only those can be appointed delegates who are competent to execute the delegation. For an act of consecration the delegate must have himself the necessary sacred orders. For acts of jurisdiction he must be an ecclesiastic, though the pope could also delegate a layman. Papal delegation is usually conferred only on ecclesiastical dignitaries or canons. The delegate must be twenty years old, but eighteen years suffices for one appointed by the pope. He must also be free from excommunication. Those placed under the jurisdiction of the delegator must submit to the delegation. Delegation for one matter can also be conferred upon several. The distinction to be made is whether they have to act jointly and severally (collegiately), jointly but individually (solidarily), or solidarily at least in some given case.  The delegate is to follow exactly his instructions, but is empowered to do all that is necessary to execute them. If he exceed his power, his act is null.

When necessary the delegate can himself delegate, i.e. subdelegate, a qualified person; he can do this especially if he is a papal delegate, or if he has received permission, or if he has been delegated for a number of cases. Since delegation constitutes a new court, appeal can be taken from the delegate to the delegator, and in the case of subdelegation to the original delegator. Delegated jurisdiction expires on the death of the delegate, in case the commission were not issued in view of the permanence of his office, on the loss of office or the death of the delegator, in case the delegate has not acted (re adhuc integra, the matter being still intact), on recall of his authority by the delegator (even re adhuc nondum integra, the matter being no longer intact), on expiration of the allotted time, on settlement of the matter, on declaration of the delegate that he has no power.

From the beginning of the Christian religion the ecclesiastical judge, i.e. the bishop, decided matters of dispute that were purely religious in character (causae mere ecclesiasticae). This jurisdiction of the Church was recognized by the civil (imperial) power when it became Christian. But long before this the early Christians, following the exhortation of Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 6:14), were wont to submit to ecclesiastical jurisdiction matters which by their nature belonged to the civil courts. As long as Christianity was not recognized by the State, it was left to the conscience of the individual whether he would conform to the decision of the bishop or not. Once Christianity had received civil recognition, Constantine the Great raised the former private usage to a public law. According to an imperial constitution of the year 321, the parties in dispute could, by mutual agreement, bring the matter before the bishop even when it was already pending before a civil judge, and the latter was obliged to put into effect the decision of the bishop. A further constitution of 331 provided that in any stage of the suit any one of the parties could appeal to the bishop even against the will of the others

This arbitral jurisdiction of the bishop was not recognized in the new Teutonic kingdoms. In the Frankish kingdoms, purely ecclesiastical matters of dispute belonged to the jurisdiction of the bishop, but mixed cases, in which civil interests appeared, e.g. marriage questions, lawsuits concerning Church property etc., belonged to the civil courts.

In the Middle Ages the Church succeeded in extending its jurisdiction over all matters that offered an ecclesiastical interest (causae spiritualibus annexae), all litigation concerning marriages; matters concerning burial; testaments; compacts ratified with an oath; matters pertaining to benefices; questions of patronage; litigation concerning church property and tithes. In addition, all civil litigation in which the element of sin was in question (ratio peccati) could be summoned before an ecclesiastical court.

Also the ecclesiastical court had jurisdiction over the affairs of ecclesiastics, monks and nuns, the poor, widows and orphans (personae miserabiles, the needy) and those persons to whom the civil judge refused legal redress. This far-reaching civil jurisdiction of the Church eventually overlapped the natural boundaries of Church and State. A reaction against this condition of affairs arose in England as early as the twelfth century, spread to France and Germany and gained in influence and justification the more the administration of justice by the State improved. At the end of the long vicissitudinous struggle, the Church lost its jurisdiction in res spiritualibus annexal, notwithstanding the claims of the Council of Trent,[27] also the privilege of the clergy, and finally jurisdiction in matrimonial causes as far as their civil character was concerned.

In regard to ecclesiastical jurisdiction in criminal matters, the Church exercised jurisdiction at first only in purely ecclesiastical offences, and inflicted only ecclesiastical punishments, e.g. excommunication, and in the case of clerics deposition. The observance of these penalties had to be left to the conscience of the individual, but with the formal recognition of the Church by the State and the increase of ecclesiastical penalties proportioned to the increase of ecclesiastical offences, came an appeal from the Church to the secular arm for aid in enforcing the said penalties, which aid was always willingly granted. Some offence, especially deviations from the Catholic Faith, were by the State made punishable in civil law and secular penalties were attached to them, also to certain disciplinary misdemeanours of ecclesiastics.[28] Conversely, the Church in the Middle Ages increased its penal jurisdiction in the civil domain by infliction of varied penalties, some of them purely secular in character.

Above all, by means of the privilegium fori it withdrew the so-called "criminous clerks" from the jurisdiction of the civil courts. Then it obtained for the court held by the bishop during his diocesan visitation (the send) not only the punishment of those civil misdemeanours which involved the element of sin and consequently affected both Church and State, but it also punished, and as such, purely civil offences. The penal jurisdiction of the medieval Church included, therefore, first the merely ecclesiastical offences, e.g. heresy, schism, apostasy etc.; then the merely civil offences; finally the mixed offences, e.g. sins of the flesh, sacrilege, blasphemy, (diabolical 'black') magic, perjury, usury etc.

In punishing offences of a purely ecclesiastical character the Church disposed unreservedly of the aid of the State for the execution of the penalty. When in the aforesaid send court held by the bishop during his visitation, it inflicted punishment on the civil offences of the laity, the penalty, as a rule, was enforced by the imperial count (Graf) who accompanied the bishop and represented the civil power. The principle prevailed later that an offence already punished by a secular judge was no longer punishable by the ecclesiastical judge.

When the send began to disappear, both ecclesiastical and secular judges were in general held equally competent for mixed offences. Prevention (previous adjudication of the case by one judge or the other) was decisive. If the matter were brought before the ecclesiastical judge he inflicted at the same time the civil penalty, not, however, corporal punishments such as the death penalty. If the accusation was brought before the secular judge, the civil penalty was inflicted by him and the action of the Church was limited to the imposition of a penance. The Church eventually lost by far the greater part of its criminal jurisdiction for the same reasons which, since the end of the Middle Ages, led to the loss of most of its contentious jurisdiction, and in the same manner. Moreover, from the fifteenth century on, the recursus ab abusu which first arose in France (appel comme d'abus), that is the appeal from an abuse of power by an ecclesiastical authority, did much to weaken and discredit ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

America's English-Style Legal System Evolved to Conceal Truth, Not Reveal It

EVAN WHITTON

JUNE 14, 2012

Taxpayers pay for their countries' legal systems, including the wages of law officers, judges, legal bureaucrats, regulators, police, and prosecutors. Citizens living under English-style common law legal systems (and in particular those of former colonies Australia and the United States) also increasingly sense there is something wrong with these systems. A poll taken for the Australian Reader's Digest in 2011 found that judges and lawyers are less trusted there than bus drivers, vets, police, hairdressers, or chefs.

But what exactly is wrong? Whatever it is, it seems that lawyers, including judges and academics, cannot help much; law schools generally teach what the law is, not where it came from, or what ails it, or the cure. If vet schools did that, a lot of cats and dogs would be dead, and a lot more children would be sad.

Chronology is always the first element of deduction, so perhaps an evaluation of the development of the Anglo-American legal system is in order. The following account, drawn largely from the words of more than 300 lawyers and judges over the past few millenia, suggests that the system developed in what we might classify as six stages.

1. Trickle-down extortion. English common law began in 1166. At the time, every public office was for sale; buyers in turn extorted bribes from people who dealt with the office. It seems fair to assume that judges used lawyers as go-betweens for extortions. The entire form of the law, then, evolved from an elaborate dance of bribery and manipulation; hardly a solid foundation upon which to build a society.

2. The cartel. Members of any cartel collude to increase prices and profits. As Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals has said, judges and lawyers have always been a cartel. That may explain why judges have never been trained as judges; one day they are lawyers versed in sophistry -- trick questions, false arguments, etc. -- and, after either an election or political appointment, judges the next. Hence the uneasy feeling: will a ruling reflect justice, or will it be made for some other purpose? Political ideology? More business for lawyers? Power?

3. Truth rejected. Justice Russell Fox, who researched the law for 11 years after he retired from the Australian Federal Court, said that justice means fairness; fairness and morality require a search for the truth; truth means reality. Judges in England rejected a truth-seeking (inquisitorial) system in 1219. That partly explains why our system can at its worst be unfair, unjust, unreal, and immoral; truth often takes a back seat to process and form.

Continental European countries adopted an inquisitorial system after a church-state conference in November 1215, but of course their judges perverted justice in a different way; for more than five centuries, they believed torture to be a reliable method of finding the truth.

4. The civil adversary system. The system dates back to 1460, when judges began to let lawyers take control of pleadings. Comparing Napoleon's reformed inquisitorial system with the adversary system would dismay our taxpayers. In France, trained judges are in charge of evidence and questioning witnesses. Paid on a fixed wage, they have little motive to prolong the process. Most hearings take a day or so.

In our system, lawyers control evidence and question witnesses. At $300-plus an hour, they have an incentive to spin the process out. The hearings process can take months or years. Untrained judges do the decent thing: they try to stay awake, often successfully. Yale law professor Fred Rodell said the system is "nothing but a high-class racket".

5. The criminal adversary system. Lawyers did not defend criminals for more than five centuries: there was no money in it. It was not until the 18th century that they began to do criminal work, and naturally took over the process.

Unfortunately for lawyers, the common law still had few tools they could use to circumvent the truth. With conviction fairly certain, the accused might be reluctant to pay for legal services, choosing instead to keep their money for when they got out. Happily, the rights of the accused were suddenly discovered.

6. Concealing evidence. Over the last 200 years, judges have invented myriad truth-defeating devices, including a few that conceal important evidence. Here are a few:

  • The "right" of silence. The rule against self-incrimination is based on a lie by the first legal academic, a charlatan named William Blackstone. It's estimated to get off about a quarter of guilty defendants.

  • Concealing context. Serial sex criminals are largely protected by a rule that conceals evidence of a pattern of criminal behavior.

  • Cross-examination. Lawyers are allowed to use sophistry to make honest witnesses look unreliable.

  • Juries. Juries let off about 25 percent of guilty defendants, according to some estimates, because jurors are confused by concepts such as "beyond a reasonable doubt."

In France, evidence is not concealed and lawyers are not allowed to use artful lies to pollute the truth. The innocent are rarely charged; 95 percent of guilty defendants are convicted. Public confidence in the system is high.

In the Anglo-American common law system, lawyers are encouraged to obfuscate the truth and use sophistry to besmirch the integrity of honest witnesses. In the U.S., it is estimated that upwards of four percent of the prison population is innocent (a staggering 80,000 people, more than double the prison population of Canada) -- with some on death row -- but more than half of guilty defendants get off.

Taxpayers clearly pay too much for too little justice. Changing to a truth-seeking system might be a remedy. This would require, at a minimum: outlawing the concealing of evidence; re-training academics to teach law students techniques of finding the truth instead of mugging up a million ways to defeat it; dismantling the professional cartel by training judges separately from lawyers; appointing six times as many judges, on the basis of rigorous examinations, and giving them back control of the process; compelling lawyers and judges to take an oath to tell the truth; having lay jurors and trial and appellate judges sit together to render their verdicts and levy penalties (if any) together.

Justice Russell Fox said the public knows that "justice marches with the truth." It's high time we tried to reunite the two.”

 

SUMMARY OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

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Timeline of American History And The Birth of White Supremacy and White Privilege in America

Late 1500’s - Wahunsenacawh, the mamanatowick (Paramount Chief) of the Powhatan people created a confederacy of 30 groups, each with a weroance (leader, commander) representing between 14,000 and 21,000 eastern Algonquian speaking peoples in an area of about 8,000 square miles called Tsencommacah (“Densely inhabited land”) inhabited by the Paspahegh people . Today that area is called Richmond, Virginia.

1585 - Wahunsenacawh discovers English immigrants illegally crossed the Tsencommacah border. As part of a scheme by Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt to export England’s growing number of unemployed in order to create new markets and increase the riches of the British Crown while at the same time establishing a military base to attack Spanish settlements, Queen Elizabeth supported this early group of immigrants. To sell the idea, the true purpose was concealed and spreading Christianity to the Powhatan was promoted. By 1590, the settlement was found deserted.

1607 – The English immigrants set up a squatter’s camp along the north bank of the Powhatan River. Conflicts began immediately. The English immigrants fired gun shots as soon as they arrived. Within two weeks, the English immigrants had already killed Paspahegh people. In December, Opechancanough, the brother of Wahunsenacawh, captured the leader of 105 English immigrants while trying to illegally cross the Chickahominy River. John Smith was taken to Werowocomoco, the Powhatan capital in Tsencommacah.

1608 – In December, the English immigrants suffered through the winter and were starving. The Wahunsenacawh offered to sell them a shipload of corn in exchange for a grindstone, fifty swords, some guns, a cock, a hen, copper, beads, and some men to build him an English-style house. On December 29, Smith headed for Werowocomoco by sea with a small force planning to ambush Wahunsenacawh.

1609 – Smith arrives at Werowocomoco on January 12th. Wahunsenacawh, aware of the planned ambush, met Smith’s armed men with his own armed force. Smith and the English immigrants resisted the Werowocomoco authority and refused to disarm. Smith’s party stole the corn and traveled up the Pamunkey River. There, they held Opechancanough at gunpoint while they stole food and supplies.

1610 Illegal English immigration continued. Wahunsenacawh said, “Your coming is not for trade, but to invade my people and possess my country…Having seen the death of all my people thrice… I know the difference of peace and were better than any other Country.” Under the instruction of the London Company, Thomas Gates set out to “Christianize” the Powhatan Confederacy. Starting with the Kecoughtan people, Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance and then slaughtered them, initiating the First Anglo-Powhatan War in June.

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1619The human trafficking of African people began with twenty people brought to Tsencommacah by shareholders of the Virginia Company of London.

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1622 – In the Spring, an illegal English immigrant murdered the Powhatan General and Secretary of Defense Nemattanew. In response, the Powhatan Confederacy launched military raids on 31 illegal English squatter settlements along the Powhatan River. 347 illegal English immigrants were killed resisting Powhatan authority. This was the second Anglo-Powhatan War.

1624 – more than 4,000 English immigrants illegally crossed into Tsencommacah. The British Government took direct control of the illegal English squatter’s camps and designated them a royal colony of England.

1636 - Colonial North America's slave trade begins when the first American slave carrier, Desire, is built and launched in Massachusetts.

1641 - Massachusetts is the first colony to legalize slavery.

1643 - The New England Confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven adopts a fugitive slave law.

1644 – Third Anglo-Powhatan War. The Manatowick Opechancanough, who was over 90 years old by this time, was captured. While a prisoner, he was shot in the back and killed by an English terrorist and gang leader assigned to guard him.

1646 – The Treaty of 1646 marks the effective dissolution of the Powhatan Confederacy.

1649 – the House of Burgesses lifts the northern border demarcating the territory reserved for English immigrants in the Treaty of 1646, resulting in a wave of new English immigrants flooding the peninsular region known as Chickagoan.

1650 - Connecticut legalizes slavery.

1657 - Virginia passes a fugitive slave law.

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1660 - Charles II, King of England, orders the Council of Foreign Plantations to devise strategies for converting slaves and servants to Christianity.

1662 – The General Assembly of the Virginia Colony passes legislation making a “mulatto’s child” status as free or slave dependent upon the condition of the child’s mother. The law permitted and encouraged the sexual violation of black women as a means of increasing plantation wealth. This law worked to render children of women of African descent human capital. Black women were thus transformed into a machine for capitalist production and the enrichment of wealthy English immigrants. The law also made English women the only possible production site of “pure” English children. A fine was also imposed for sexual intimacy outside of marriage when one party was “English or Christian” and the other party was “negro”.

1663 - Maryland legalizes slavery.

1664 – The Colonial Assembly of Maryland enacted a law that punished a woman who was “English or freeborn” who married a black slave. New York and New Jersey legalize slavery

1668 – Virginia enacts a law making free women of African descent tithable.

1670 – more and more chattel bond servants were completing their term of servitude and becoming freed tenants. This meant more competition for large landholders as freed tenants sought their own fortunes in tobacco. This posed a threat for the English authorities in Virginia. They responded to this threat by extending the years of servitude through penalties for violations such as running away, giving birth to a child or killing a hog. Another law forbids non-Europeans to be owners of Christian bond laborers. Another law was enacted whereby only landowners could vote in elections, stripping the freed tenants from voting. By this time, the poor and homeless immigrants sent by England slowed significantly, leaving a gap in the labor supply. Wealthy English immigrants looked elsewhere for labor, and the human trafficking of African people started to increase.

1676 – Discontent among laborers, both European and African, bond and free, erupted in a fight against unpaid labor and plantation elites. The leader of the rebellion, Nathaniel Bacon, and a number of his neighbors held contempt for the native Doeg people whom they blamed for the deaths of plantation owner Thomas Mathew’s two sons after Mathew refused to pay the Doeg for goods they had traded. Bacon and his group were also frustrated with the response of the English government authorities in the Virginia Colony, particularly Governor William Berkeley. On May 10, Bacon attacked the Doeg and besieged the Susquehannock. Following this, the Doeg made an alliance with the Nanzatico. While Bacon continued to attack the Doeg, other rebel groups plundered the estates of government loyalists. The threat of a united labor force to the capitalist plantation system was made clear. The governing elite decided to divide and conquer, separate one group with the authority to rule over and oppress the other. In her book, Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People And Its Relevance Today, Jacqueline Battalora quotes historian Gary Nash “in describing the process of imposing slavery upon persons of African descent following Bacon’s Rebellion: ‘In rapid succession Afro Americans lost their right to testify before a court, to engage in any kind of commercial activity, either as buyer or seller; to hold property; to participate in the political process; to congregate in public places with more than two or three of their fellows; to travel without permission; and to engage in legal marriage or parenthood.” According to Theodore W. Allen, the response to the rebellion was the creation of a new social status that would be a birthright of Anglos as well as Europeans in North America, a ‘white’ identity designed to set them apart from African bond laborers as well as enlist Europeans across class lines as active or passive supporters of capitalist agriculture based on chattel bond labor.’”

1681 The label “white” first appears in law. The Colonial Assembly of the Colony of Maryland passed an enactment that stated, “And for as much diverse freeborn English or White woman sometimes by the Instigacon Procurement or Convenience of their Masters Mistress or dames….do intermarry with Negroes & Slaves….” There is a switch from the 1664 legislation from the terms “English or freeborn” to that of “white” women. Battalora notes that, “These laws reveal that those who were members of native tribes or of African descent were viewed as sufficiently unlike the British so as to warrant separate labels and exclusion from the full package of rights and privileges that the British and those considered sufficiently like them enjoyed. This was true prior to Bacon’s Rebellion, at least among lawmakers. What is striking after Bacon’s Rebellion is the label given to those who were not ‘Negroes or mulattos or Indians.’ Those people, who were referenced in law first primarily as ‘British and other Christians’ and then by mid-century as ‘English and freeborn,’ became, after 1680 ‘white’…. The Maryland law of 1681 reflects the first time in legal history, in the land that would eventually become the U.S., that ‘white’ was used in law to reflect a human classification. This Maryland law represents the invention of ‘white’ people in law… The law provides that freeborn English or ‘white’ women who enter into marriage with a slave of African descent do so ‘to the satisfaction of their lascivious and lustful desires’ and to the ‘disgrace not only of the English but also of many other Christian nations.’ This language reveals important perceptions and reflects persuasive efforts to shape a human group now being referred to as ‘white’. Taken-for-granted components include that African bodies represent excessive sexuality while bodies seen as ‘white’, like the English, reflect normal sexuality. The normality that is conferred by virtue of one’s status as English or white is corrupted and turned sexually deviant by the desire to wed those being constructed as ‘other’ and inferior – first enslaved African men, and then simply Africans. The corruption of the individual is then perceived to harm the group by disgracing the English collectively through challenging what being English symbolizes. The Maryland lawmakers here fuse biology with morality. Here, criminality is linked not to property damage or physical harm, but to an action that represents a threat to a group status. Here ‘white’ is revealed as fragile, requiring significant protective measures. The 1681 enactment of the Maryland lawmakers reveals the initial legal authorization of a label and its package of ideas that worked to create, perpetuate, and institutionalize representations of bodies made different, specifically those made ‘white’ and in the most general sense those rendered other-than-white. In addition, the law exposes these community standards to be premised upon a hierarchical ordering of humanity that presupposed the superiority of the English and then reveals the category ‘English’ being expanded to encompass ‘other whites’. We learn here, too, that whiteness was built upon the idea of English as white and upon the presumption of the English as Christian. We see also in these enactments that white is reflective of those who are deserving of freedoms and privileges denied those viewed as sufficiently unlike the English. These assumptions and ideas combine in the invention of the new category of humanity. For those who are now thinking that the invention of white people and the resulting racial hierarchy that follows is the fault of ‘the damn British’, I will caution that such a view of human categorization did not emerge from England and was viewed as peculiar by legal actors there. In England, access to rights and privileges were rooted in wealth, not shades of skin color. It was by British leadership WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA that ‘white’ people were imagined and invented.”

THUS IS THE BIRTH OF WHITE SUPREMACY AND WHITE PRIVILEGE IN AMERICA.

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1682 – From 1607 to 1682, roughly 92,000 immigrants from Europe, mostly men from England, arrived in what is now called Virginia, but also Maryland. 69,000 were the victims of human traffickers who created a system known as chattel bond laborers. These English immigrants agreed to be enslaved as security against a loan or an inherited debt. The bond laborer was supplied with food, clothing and shelter during the years of service, and the master owned everything earned by the servant. The agreement looked like employment where the worker starts with a debt to repay only to find that repayment of the loan is impossible. Then, their enslavement becomes permanent. Under this system, some officers in the colony were getting rich under a system of private enterprise, advancing the fortunes of a few and the death of many. Most of this fortune was made in farming tobacco fields.

1690 - The 1690 “Act for the Better Ordering of Slaves” codified the institution of chattel slavery in South Carolina. Among other things, slaves were required to get written passes to travel. Those who lacked permission to travel were considered runaways. Barbaric punishments under the 1690 Act included whipping, branding, nose-slitting. Runaways were subject to being branded with an R on the cheek and/or loss of an ear. Other penalties for a range of offenses included castration and the severing of a tendon.

Section III of the 1690 Act contained the travel requirements is copied below:

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1691 – Virginia passes an anti-miscegenation law. The law stated, “…. whatsoever English or other white man or woman being free shall intermarry with a negro, mulatto, or Indian man or woman bond or free, shall within three months after such marriage be banished and removed from this dominion forever….” Battalora writes, “The law did far more than control the sexuality and relationality of ‘white’ women and nonwhite men. It created a ‘criminal.’ Where a child was born, the law created an ‘abomination.’ Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law of 1691 begins by describing children born of a biological parent who was understood to be English or ‘white’ and a biological parent who was understood as a ‘negro, mulatto, or Indian as ‘that abominable mixture and spurious issue. Through this descriptive alchemy, the general assembly not only worked to create the human category ‘white’ but also a human category anathema to their colonial society. Virginia’s antimiscegenation law required not only that a free English woman who gave birth to a child fathered by a man from one of the prohibited classifications relinquish the child, but also that she pay a fine or face five additional years of servitude….The law blocked those relationships between ‘whites’ and those of native tribes or persons of African descent that took an intimate and consensual form from being legitimized by the community and from receiving the protections and exercising the responsibilities created by marriage law. In addition, these laws placed the financial burden, as well as the burden of public shame for ‘mixed’ pregnancies, upon women. ‘White’ men who had children with women understood as not ‘white’ did so largely to the advancement of their investment in property or that of the landowner for whom they labored…. Women of African descent were made capital and thus instruments of wealth production. ‘White’ women were made bearers of purity and thus instruments of white supremacy.”

1696 - The Royal African Trade Company loses its monopoly and New England colonists enter the slave trade.

1700 - Pennsylvania legalizes slavery.

1705 – Virginia enacts a law prohibiting setting free slaves of African descent. Another law imposed a prohibition against free blacks holding public office while yet another law prohibited the beating or whipping of a Christian ‘white’ servant while naked without an order from the justice of the peace. This law worked to render ‘white’ a special status deserving of protection from humiliation and physical punishment, linking ‘white’ with an expectation of due process while denying it to those outside its parameters. Other laws enacted blocked persons of African descent from testifying against a ‘white’ person and another that prohibited free blacks from possessing any weapon, including a club, gun, powder, or shot. Another law made it a criminal offense for a person of African descent to raise a hand against any ‘white’ person, subject to public lashing. Battalora writes, “These laws combined to render persons of African descent all but completely self-defenseless, especially against violence inflicted by a ‘white’ person. Not only do these laws enforce a human hierarchy that places ‘white’ people at the top, they render the lives of those of African descent less valuable than the most depraved and inhumane ‘white’ person. Through law, free people of African descent were stripped of the freedoms enjoyed in their status as ‘free’ members of the colonial society. No matter how loyal to the British crown, no matter how faithful to Christianity, no matter how valuable their contribution to the colonial community, people of African descent for the first time faced severe restrictions. They were limited not only in their legal standing within the community, but by virtue of their very ability to preserve and protect their bodily integrity and that of family members.” Meanwhile, a law was enacted that the freedom dues provided to every ‘white’ male included ten bushels of corn, thirty shillings in money, a gun, and to every woman servant, fifteen bushels of corn and forty shillings in money. Thus established the economic welfare system for white privilege.

1715 - Rhode Island legalizes slavery.

1723 – Virginia law excludes Africans from the armed militia. Battalora writes, “Through such enactments, those of African descent who were established as free members of the colonial community were rendered inferior to both an indentured and non-indentured ‘white’ man. An indentured ‘white’ man held the legal potential of a future position in public office and the ability to own any bond laborer. Through such laws, free people of African descent began to be stripped of the full range of opportunity and resources within colonial society. The messages promulgated by these laws and others include that the privileges of freedom are only fully available to ‘whites’ and that a person of African descent is incapable of being in a position of authority relative to a ‘white’ person.”

1739 - the Stono slave rebellion resulted in the imposition of an even stricter slave code, the “Bill for the better ordering and governing of Negroes and other Slaves in this Province,” known as the “Negro Act” of 1740. The Act of 1740 codified the denial of rights for slaves under English common law and deemed them legal nonentities. Slaves could not testify under oath, writing was prohibited, and drumming and playing horns was outlawed. The 1740 Negro Act made it illegal for slaves to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money, and learn to read English. Owners are permitted to kill rebellious slaves if necessary. The 1740 Act even regulated clothing for slaves. The Act became the basis for the institution of slavery in South Carolina until 1865 and influenced slave codes throughout the South.

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1775 - The African population in the colonies is nearly 500,000. In Virginia, the ratio of free colonists or ‘white’ men to slaves or non-white men is nearly 1:1. In South Carolina it is approximately 1:2.

DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL ISSUES CONCERNING BALANTA PEOPLE

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