In the same year, several servants planned to make their escape to the Dutch provinces in the North, the ringleader in the conspiracy being a Dutchman, and one of the participants a negro. They were captured when they had gotten only as far as Elizabeth River. The punishment in this case was severer than in that previously mentioned. The Dutchman was sentenced to receive thirty lashes, to have the letter “R” branded in his cheek, and to carry a shackle upon one leg as he worked. When his term of service expired, he was to be delivered to the authorities, to remain in the public employment for seven years. One of his accomplices, after receiving thirty lashes, and being branded in the cheek, was upon the close of the period covered by his indenture to become the servant of the Colony, and to continue so for the space of three years. A second accomplice was to be bound over to the public for two years after the expiration of his term. The negro was to be burnt in the face with the letter “R” and to be whipped severely.[1]
In 1660-61, it was provided that if a white man bound by indenture or the custom, fled in company with negroes, who, being the property of their owner for life, could not be punished by an extension of their terms, he was to be compelled, when brought back, to remain in the employment of his master double his own time, and of the slaves’ master, during a set period for every slave who had gone off with him; and if more than one white person was in the party of runaways, the whole number of white men were to be proportionately liable for the time for which the negroes, if they had been English laborers, would have been compelled to serve, in addition to those terms for which they were already bound.[2]
