Editing Murder (section)

=== Slavery ===
Southern slave codes did make willful killing of a [[slavery in the United States|slave]] illegal in most cases.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Thomas D. |title=Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 |date=1996 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-4817-3 |page=172 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmPWCKh0hZAC&pg=PA172 }}</ref> For example, the 1860 [[Mississippi]] case of ''Oliver v. State'' charged the defendant with murdering his own slave.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fede |first1=Andrew |title=People Without Rights |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-71610-2 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lMxvDh7PCwcC&pg=PA79 }}</ref> In 1811, the wealthy white planter [[Arthur William Hodge|Arthur Hodge]] was hanged for murdering several of his slaves on his plantation in the [[British Virgin Islands|Virgin Islands]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/llst.064/?st=list&c=150 |title=A report of the trial of Arthur Hodge, Esquire, (late one of the members of His Majesty's Council for the Virgin-Islands) at the island of Tortola, on the 25th April, 1811, and adjourned to the 29th of the same month, for the murder of his Negro man slave named Prosper |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=14 September 2021 }}</ref>