of her term was sold by the wardens of the nearest church for a period of five years....  The child was bound out until his or her thirtieth year had been reached."[292]

The determined effort to prevent any such unions between blacks and whites may be seen in the Virginia law of 1691 which declared that any white woman marrying a negro or mulatto, bond or free, should suffer perpetual banishment.  But at no time in the South was adultery of any sort punished with such almost fiendish cruelty as in New England, except in one known instance when a Virginia woman was punished by being dragged through the water behind a swiftly moving boat.

The social evil is apparently as old as civilization, and no country seems able to escape its blighting influence.  Even the Puritan colonies had to contend with it.  In 1638 Josselyn, writing of New England said:  “There are many strange women too (in Solomon’s sense,").  Phoebe Kelly, the mother of Madam Jumel, second wife of Aaron Burr, made her living as a prostitute, and was at least twice (1772 and 1785) driven from disorderly resorts at Providence, and for the second offense was imprisoned.  Ben Franklin frequently speaks of such women and of such haunts in Philadelphia, and, with characteristic indifference, makes no serious objection to them.  All in all, in spite of strong hostile influence, such as Puritanism in New England, Quakerism in the Middle Colonies, and the desire for untainted aristocratic blood in the South, the evil progressed nevertheless, and was found in practically every city throughout the colonies.

Among men there may not have been any more immorality than at present, but certainly there was much more freedom of action along this line and apparently much less shame over the revelations of lax living.  Men prominent in public life were not infrequently accused of intrigues with women, or even known to be the fathers of illegitimate children; their wives, families and friends were aware of it, and yet, as we look at the comments made at that day, such affairs seem to have been taken too much as a matter of course.  Benjamin Franklin was the father of an illegitimate son, whom he brought into his home and whom his wife consented to rear.  It was a matter of common talk throughout Virginia that Jefferson had had at least one son by a negro slave.  Alexander Hamilton at a time when his children were almost grown up was connected with a woman in a most wretched scandal, which, while provoking some rather violent talk, did not create the storm that a similar irregularity on the part of a great public man would now cause.  Undoubtedly the women of colonial days were too lenient in their views concerning man’s weakness, and naturally men took full advantage of such easy forgiveness.

XIV.  Violent Speech and Action