Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/125

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who disregarded the provision to this effect was made subject to a fine of ten thousand pounds of tobacco.^[1] If a negress gave birth to a bastard child^[2] who was entirely of her own color, proving that its father was of African blood, she was sent by her master to the county seat to be chastised by the sheriff. The child remained the property of her owner. If the mother of a full-blooded negro bastard happened to be free, but was bound for a term of years at the time of its birth, she was required by way of punishment to remain in the same service for an additional period of twenty-four months, and she was also soundly whipped for the offence.^[3] The child was placed at the disposal of the church wardens of the parish.

In proportion to the population of African blood, there were as many runaways among the slaves as among the white servants. Maryland seems to have been the province in which the largest number of the fugitives escaping beyond the boundaries of the Colony took refuge. A case may be mentioned which shows the means employed in recovering absconding negroes previous to the middle of the century. In the course of the fourth decade, special

↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 454.
↑ No provision was made by the laws of Virginia in the seventeenth century for the legal marriage of negro slaves. The status then was doubtless the same as it was in the nineteenth; that is to say, the marriages of slaves were not recognized in law. Slaves, however, were married with religious services performed by ministers of the Gospel. A negro bastard was one born either of a slave African mother who had not been married with the ordinary religious ceremony to the father of the child, or of a free African mother who had not been married according to the regulations prescribed by law. The child of a white woman by a negro or mulatto was, under all circumstances, a bastard, as marriage between individuals of the two races was not allowed by law. In the same way, the child of a negress was, under all circumstances, a bastard if its father was a white man.
↑ Records of Henrico County, vol. 1682-1701, p. 190, Va. State Library.

[1] Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 454.

[2] No provision was made by the laws of Virginia in the seventeenth century for the legal marriage of negro slaves. The status then was doubtless the same as it was in the nineteenth; that is to say, the marriages of slaves were not recognized in law. Slaves, however, were married with religious services performed by ministers of the Gospel. A negro bastard was one born either of a slave African mother who had not been married with the ordinary religious ceremony to the father of the child, or of a free African mother who had not been married according to the regulations prescribed by law. The child of a white woman by a negro or mulatto was, under all circumstances, a bastard, as marriage between individuals of the two races was not allowed by law. In the same way, the child of a negress was, under all circumstances, a bastard if its father was a white man.

[3] Records of Henrico County, vol. 1682-1701, p. 190, Va. State Library.

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