Article 13 of the Indiana Constitution of 1851 imposed other restrictions for "free Blacks" (African Americans who were not slaves) living in or arriving in the state:

    No negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution. All contracts made with any Negro or Mulatto coming into the state, contrary to the provisions of the foregoing section, shall be void, and ant person who shall employ such Negro or Mulatto, or otherwise encourage him to remain in the State, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars.

    Routes for the Underground Railroad
Robert Dale Owens, a political delegate in the state legislation asserted:

    They can never obtain social rights here. We ought not to have them amongst us. They are daily increasing in number but of necessity must remain disenfranchised, a class of people to be taxed without being represented.

Prior to the Civil War, these policies were countered by abolitionists who took an active role in Indiana's legendary underground railroad, the stops of freedom for slaves traveling to Canada and American free states. For over 20 years (in the 1830s and 1840s), Levi and Catherine Coffin of Fountain City, Indiana, assisted more the 3,000 men and women to make their escape. The Coffins were Quakers originally from North Carolina; they later moved to Ohio.

The 1851 constitutional provision against Black immigration was not removed until 1881, although it became obsolete in 1868 when the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, guaranteeing civil rights to African Americans in all states. In 1869 the Indiana legislature legalized entry by Black students into the public education system. During the 1860s, the African American population in Indiana more than doubled.

    Levi Coffin House in Fountain City; now a National Historic Site