[402] Mass.  Hist Soc.  Coll., vol. iv. 1st Series, pp. 202, 203.

[403] Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 564.

[404] House Journal, p. 85, quoted by Dr. Moore.

[405] House Journal, p. 94.

[406] Slavery in Mass., p. 136.

[407] House Journal, p. 104.

[408] House Journal p. 224.

[409] Ibid., p. 226.

[410] House Journal, Gen Court Records, xxx. pp. 248, 264; also, Slavery in Mass, p. 137.

[411] Mass.  Archives, Domestic Relations, 1643-1774, vol. ix. p. 457.

[412] Ethiope, p. 12.

[413] Bolingbroke, pp. 346-348.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE COLONY OF MARYLAND.

1634-1775.

     MARYLAND UNDER THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA UNTIL 1630.—­FIRST
     LEGISLATION ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN 1637-38.—­SLAVERY
     ESTABLISHED BY STATUTE IN 1663.—­THE DISCUSSION OF
     SLAVERY.—­AN ACT PASSED ENCOURAGING THE IMPORTATION OF
     NEGROES AND WHITE SERVANTS IN 1671.—­AN ACT LAYING AN IMPOST
     ON NEGROES AND WHITE SERVANTS IMPORTED INTO THE
     COLONY.—­DUTIES IMPOSED ON RUM AND WINE.—­TREATMENT OF
     SLAVES AND PAPISTS.—­CONVICTS IMPORTED INTO THE COLONY.—­AN
     ATTEMPT TO JUSTIFY THE CONVICT-TRADE.—­SPIRITED
     REPLIES.—­THE LAWS OF 1723, 1729, 1752.—­RIGHTS OF
     SLAVES.—­NEGRO POPULATION IN 1728.—­INCREASE OF SLAVERY IN
     1756.—­NO EFFORTS MADE TO PREVENT THE EVILS OF SLAVERY.—­THE
     REVOLUTION NEARING.—­NEW LIFE FOR THE NEGROES.

Up to the 20th of June, 1630, the territory that at present constitutes the State of Maryland was included within the limits of the colony of Virginia.  During that period the laws of Virginia obtained throughout the entire territory.

In 1637[414] the first assembly of the colony of Maryland agreed upon a number of bills, but they never became laws.  The list is left, but nothing more.  The nearest and earliest attempt at legislation on the slavery question to be found is a bill that was introduced “for punishment of ill servants.”  During the earlier years of the existence of slavery in Virginia, the term “servant” was applied to Negroes as well as to white persons.  The legal distinction between slaves and servants was, “servants for a term of years,”—­white persons; and “servants for life,”—­Negroes.  In the first place, there can be no doubt but what Negro slaves were a part of the population of this colony from its organization;[415] and, in the second place, the above-mentioned bill of 1637 for the “punishment of ill servants” was intended, doubtless, to apply to Negro servants, or slaves.  So few were they in number, that they were seldom referred to as “slaves.”  They were “servants;” and that appellation dropped out only when the growth of slavery as an institution, and the necessity of specific legal distinction, made the Negro the only person that was suited to the condition of absolute property.