The Laws of the State of Mississippi. 1840.

SECT. 11. No free negro or mulatto shall be suffered to keep or carry any firelock of any kind, any military weapon, or any powder or lead, without first obtaining a license from the court of the county or corporation in which he resides, which license from court may at any time be withdrawn by an order of such court. Any free negro or mulatto who shall so offend, shall, on conviction before a justice of the peace, forfeit all such arms and ammunition to the use of the informer.

It shall be the duty of every constable to give information and prosecute, every free negro or mulatto who shall thereto keep or carry any arms or ammunition, contrary to this act.
If any free negro or mulatto, who shall have been convicted of keeping or carrying arms or ammunition, shall a second time offend in like manner, he shall, in addition to the forfeiture aforesaid, be punished with stripes, at the discretion of a justice of the peace, not exceeding thirty-nine.

SECT. 12. Every person other than a negro, of whose grandfathers or grandmothers any one is, or shall have been a negro, although all his other progenitors, except that descending from the negro, shall have been white persons, shall be deemed a mulatto; and so, every such person who shall have one-fourth part or more of negro blood, shall in like manner be deemed a mulatto.