IV.  The regulations relative to the state and condition of slaves in the
West Indies, their manumission, &c.

[Sidenote:  PREAMBLE.]

Whereas it is expedient, and comformable to the principles of true religion and morality, and to the rules of sound policy, to put an end to all traffic in the persons of men, and to the detention of their said persons in a state of slavery, as soon as the same may be effected without producing great inconveniences in the sudden change of practices of such long standing, and during the time of the continuance of the said practices it is desirable and expedient by proper regulations to lessen the inconveniences and evils attendant on the said traffic and state of servitude, until both shall be gradually done away: 

And whereas the objects of the said trade and consequential servitude, and the grievances resulting therefrom, come under the principal heads following, the regulations ought thereto to be severally applied:  that is to say, that provision should be made by the said regulations,

1st, For duly qualifying ships for the said traffic;

2nd, For the mode and conditions of permitting the said trade to be carried on upon the coast of Africa;

3rd, For the treatment of the negroes in their passage to the West India islands;

4th, For the government of the negroes which are or shall be employed in his Majesty’s colonies and plantations in the West Indies: 

[Sidenote:  Ships to be registered.]

Be it therefore enacted, that every ship or trading vessel which is intended for the negro trade, with the name of the owner or owners thereof, shall be entered and registered as ships trading to the West Indies are by law to be registered, with the further provisions following: 

[Sidenote:  Measured and surveyed.]

1.  The same entry and register shall contain an account of the greatest number of negroes of all descriptions which are proposed to be taken into the said ship or trading vessel; and the said ship, before she is permitted to be entered outwards, shall be surveyed by a ship-carpenter, to be appointed by the collector of the port from which the said vessel is to depart, and by a surgeon, also appointed by the collector, who hath been conversant in the service of the said trade, but not at the time actually engaged or covenanted therein; and the said carpenter and surgeon shall report to the collector, or in his absence, to the next principal officer of the port; upon oath, (which oath the said collector or principal officer is hereby empowered to administer,) her measurement, and what she contains in builder’s tonnage, and that she has ——­ feet of grated portholes between the decks, and that she is otherwise fitly found as a good transport vessel.

[Sidenote:  Number of slaves limited.]

2.  And be it enacted, that no ship employed in the said trade shall upon any pretence take in more negroes than one grown man or woman for one ton and half of builder’s tonnage, nor more than one boy or girl for one ton.