Indiana Constitution Bans Black Residents: Free State Practices Exclusion

Indiana's 1851 constitution, approved by voters, contained Article XIII explicitly prohibiting Black people from settling, residing, or acquiring property in the state — the most sweeping racial exclusion law enacted by any free state. Violators could be fined; money collected was used to colonize Black Indianans in Africa. Several other states — Illinois, Oregon — passed similar exclusion provisions. These 'Black Laws' demonstrated that anti-Black racism was not confined to the slaveholding South and that 'free' did not mean equal for Black Americans in the antebellum North. The provisions remained technically in effect until 1881.