A minister was strictly prohibited from publishing the bans of persons of this class, or joining them in marriage without first having received a certificate showing that the consent of their masters had been obtained, and if the union took place without that consent, the parties to it were made liable, in 1662, to the penalty of serving one year after their articles of indenture expired. The same punishment was inflicted upon the servant who intermarried clandestinely with a free person, the latter being compelled to pay the master fifteen hundred pounds of tobacco or bacon, or become his employee for a period of twelve months.[1] Although there was a law interdicting a union of free whites with negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, whether enslaved or free, there seems to have been no provision against marriage between persons of African or Indian race and pure whites, in case the latter happened to be still bound by indenture or by custom of the country. This, however, is probably explained by the fact that the consent of the master or mistress was necessary to give the marriage of a servant validity, a consent practically unattainable on account of the prejudice which existed even at this early day to such a union.
It is interesting to find that the private funerals of servants were the occasion of so much scandal as to lead to their prohibition. This scandal related to various persons nearly associated with the dead, who, if guiltless of what was whispered against them, could not vindicate their innocence, and if guilty, could always be successful in evading punishment. In order to remove all occasion for aspersion previous to the burial, three or four neighbors were summoned to view the corpse whenever there was the smallest ground for suspicion, and if not, to accompany the body to the grave. It was not permitted
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 114.
