Militia, an act paſſed in 1707, Chapter 2, required them to do ſervice on the highways and in cleaning the ſtreets, etc., as an equivalent. Thirty-three free negroes were mentioned in the minutes of the Selectmen of Boſton, in 1708, to whom, according to this law, two hundred and eighteen days of labor were aſſigned upon the highways and other public works. Lyman's Report, 1822. The ſame act prohibited them to entertain any ſervants of their own color in their houſes, without permiſſion of the reſpective maſters or miſtreſſes.
In 1712, an act was paſſed prohibiting the importation or bringing into the Province any Indian ſervants or ſlaves. The preamble recites the bad character of the Indians and other ſlaves, "being of a malicious, ſurley and revengeful ſpirit; rude and inſolent in their behaviour, and very ungovernable.” A glimpſe of poſſible future reform is to be caught in this act, for it recognizes the increafſe of ſlaves as a "diſcouragement to the importation of White Chriſtian Servants." But its chief motive was in the peculiar circumſtances of the Province "under the ſorrowful effects of the Rebellion and Hoſtilities" of the Indians, and the fact that great numbers of Indian ſlaves were already held in bondage in the Province at the time.
This act had a ſpecial reference to Southern Indians, the Tuſcaroras and others, captives in war, chiefly from South Carolina. Governor Dudley afterwards entered into correſpondence with other colonial governors, about preventing the ſale of Indians from that Province to the Northern colonies. Similar acts were paſſed by Pennſylvania in 1712,
