that any servant should be interred in a private spot. They were to be buried in public cemeteries established for this purpose. The passage of such a law illustrates with singular force the great care with which every precaution was adopted by the General Assembly for the protection of persons of this class against all forms of encroachment upon their welfare.[1]
If we examine the relations which the servant bore to the community at large, we find that he was in the enjoyment of none of the higher privileges of citizenship. He was furnished the amplest protection to life and limb which the law could give, and was entitled to the strictest observance on the part of his master of all the covenants in his indenture that assured him proper food, apparel, and lodging, but he was denied the right of suffrage, and had no voice in the general or local administration of affairs. It was only in the case of a great emergency that he was called upon to bear arms in the defence of the soil. Under ordinary circumstances, he was not permitted to have weapons in his possession, although the royal instructions in the time of James II required that he, as well as his master, should be regularly mustered.[2] At all times, unless a war was in progress, he was subject to be taken in execution as if he were a mere bale of merchandise.[3] He formed the most important part of the basis of taxation. At one period, all servants under sixteen were exempted from being included in the list of tithables. This regulation, however, led to many serious frauds, and was, therefore, revoked. It became a general custom that after a youth had been brought into the
