The Society directed O’Neall to submit it to the governor, with a request that he would lay it before the legislature, at its approaching session in November of 1848.
[2][3][4] O'Neall summarized the 1740 South Carolina law when he stated: "A slave may, by the consent of his master, acquire and hold personal property.
[6] O'Neall was the only one to express protest against the evidentiary Act of 1740, arguing for the propriety of receiving testimony from enslaved Africans-Americans (many of whom, by 1848, were Christians) under oath: "Negroes (slave or free) will feel the sanctions of an oath, with as much force as any of the ignorant classes of white people, in a Christian country.
"[7][3] On December 18, 1848, Mr. W. G. DeSaussure,[8] from the committee on the Judiciary agreed on the Message of the Governor[9] recommending the purchase of 1200 copies of the Negro Law of South Carolina and sent report of this agreement to the House of Representatives[10] for consideration.
[8] On December 8, 1858, Mr. Cannon offered a resolution for the Military Committee to inquire into the expediency of having the Negro Law of South Carolina re-published and bound in a separate volume for the purpose of distributing among the Militia Officers of the State and the Commissioners of Roads and Bridges of the State.
[11] The Negro Law of South Carolina was characterized by Howell Meadoes Henry as being: "An excellent summary of South Carolina slave law with court interpretations in narrative style, and with notes and comment and even recommendations as to desirable changes.
When the mulatto ceases, and a party bearing some slight taint of the African blood, ranks as white, is a question for the solution of a Jury.