then, slavery existed legally at this time; but the act of 1662 was the first direct law on the subject.  In 1670 a question arose as to whether Indians taken in war were to be servants for a term of years, or for life.  The act passed on the subject is rather remarkable for the language in which it is couched; showing, as it does, that it was made to relieve the Indian, and fix the term of the Negro’s bondage beyond a reasonable doubt. “It is resolved and enacted that all servants not being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives; but what shall come by land shall serve, if boyes or girles, until thirty yeares of age, if men or women twelve yeares and no longer."[154] This remarkable act was dictated by fear and policy.  No doubt the Indian was as thoroughly despised as the Negro; but the Indian was on his native soil, and, therefore, was a more dangerous[155] subject.  Instructed by the past, and fearful of the future, the sagacious colonists declared by this act, that those who “shall come by land” should not be assigned to servitude for life.  While this act was passed to define the legal status of the Indian, at the same time, and with equal force, it determines the fate of the Negro who is so unfortunate as to find his way into the colony. “All servants not being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives.”  Thus, in 1670, Virginia, not abhorring the institution, solemnly declared that “all servants not christians”—­heathen Negroes—­coming into her “colony by shipping”—­there was no other way for them to come!—­should “be slaves for their lives!”

In 1682 the colony was in a flourishing condition.  Opulence generally makes men tyrannical, and great success in business makes them unmerciful.  Although Indians, in special acts, had not been classed as slaves, but only accounted “servants for a term of years,” the growing wealth and increasing number of the colonists seemed to justify them in throwing off the mask.  The act of the 3d of October, 1670, defining who should be slaves, was repealed at the November session of the General Assembly of 1682.  Indians were now made slaves,[156] and placed upon the same legal footing with the Negroes.  The sacred rite of baptism[157] did not alter the condition of children—­Indian or Negro—­when born in slavery.  And slavery, as a cruel and inhuman institution, flourished and magnified with each returning year.

Encouraged by friendly legislation, the Dutch plied the slave-trade with a zeal equalled only by the enormous gains they reaped from the planters.  It was not enough that faith had been broken with friendly Indians, and their children doomed by statute to the hell of perpetual slavery; it was not sufficient that the Indian and Negro were compelled to serve, unrequited, for their lifetime.  On the 4th of October, 1705, “an act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves, within this dominion, to be real estate,"[158]