During the period of which we have just made mention above, the slaves in this colony had no political or military rights.  As early as 1639,[180] the Assembly excused them from owning or carrying arms; and in 1705 they were barred by a special act from holding or exercising “any office, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, or any place of publick trust or power,"[181] in the colony.  If found with a “gun, sword, club, staff, or other weopon,"[182] they were turned over to the constable, who was required to administer “twenty lashes on his or her bare back.”  There was but one exception made.  Where Negro and Indian slaves lived on the border or the colony, frequently harassed by predatory bands of hostile Indians, they could bear arms by first getting written license from their master;[183] but even then they were kept under surveillance by the whites.

Personal rights, we cannot see that the slaves had any.  They were not allowed to leave the plantation on which they were held as chattel or real estate, without a written certificate or pass from their master, which was only granted under the most urgent circumstances.[184] If they dared lift a hand against any white man, or “Christian” (?) as they loved to call themselves, they were punished by thirty lashes; and if a slave dared to resist his master while he was correcting him, he could be killed; and the master would be guiltless in the eyes of the law.[185] If a slave remained on another plantation more than four hours, his master was liable to a fine of two hundred pounds of tobacco.[186] And if any white person had any commercial dealings with a slave, he was liable to imprisonment for one month without bail, and compelled to give security in the sum of ten pounds.[187] If a slave had earned and owned a horse and buggy, it was lawful to seize them;[188] and the church-warden was charged with the sale of the articles.  Even with the full permission of his master, if a slave were found going about the colony trading any articles for his or master’s profit, his master was liable to a fine of ten pounds; which fine went to the church-warden, for the benefit of the poor of the parish in which the slave did the trading.[189]

In all the matters of law, civil and criminal, the slave had no rights.  Under an act of 1705, Catholics, Indian and Negro slaves, were denied the right to appear as “witnesses in any cases whatsoever,” “not being Christians;"[190] but this was modified somewhat in 1732, when Negroes, Indians, and Mulattoes were admitted as witnesses in the trial of slaves.[191] In criminal causes the slave could be arrested, cast into prison, tried, and condemned, with but one witness against him, and sentenced without a jury.  The solemnity and dignity of “trial by jury,” of which Englishmen love to boast, was not allowed the criminal slave.[192] And, when a slave was executed, a value was fixed upon him; and the General Assembly was required to make an appropriation covering the