The Province was thrown into intense excitement.  The Legislature called attention to the insurrection,[496] and declared legal some very questionable and summary acts.  In 1743 the people had not recovered from the fright they received from the insurrection.  On the 7th of May, 1743, an Act was passed requiring every white male inhabitant, who resorted “to any church or any other public place of divine worship, within” the Province to “carry with him a gun or a pair of horse pistols, in good order and fit for service, with at least six charges of gun-powder and ball,” upon pain of paying “twenty shillings.”

As there was a law against teaching slaves to read and write, there were no educated preachers.  If a Negro desired to preach to his fellow-slaves, he had to secure written permission from his master.  While Negroes were sometimes baptized into the communion of the Church,—­usually the Episcopal Church,—­they were allowed only in the gallery, or organ-loft, of white congregations, in small numbers.  No clergyman ventured to break unto this benighted people the bread of life.  They were abandoned to the superstitions and religious fanaticisms incident to their condition.

In 1704 an Act was passed “for raising and enlisting such slaves as shalt be thought serviceable to this Province in time of Alarms.”  It required, within thirty days after the publication of the Act, that the commanders of military organizations throughout the Province should appoint “five freeholders,” “sober and discreet men,” who were to make a complete list of all the able-bodied slaves in their respective districts.  Three of them were competent to decide upon the qualifications of a slave.  After the completion of the list, the freeholders mentioned above notified the owners to appear before them upon a certain day, and show cause why their slaves should not be chosen for the service of the colony.  The slaves were then enlisted, and their masters charged with the duty of arming them “with a serviceable lance, hatchet or gun, with sufficient amunition and hatchets, according to the conveniency of the said owners, to appear under the colours of the respective captains, in their several divisions, throughout” the Province, for the performance of such “public service” as required.  If an owner refused to equip or permit his slave to respond to alarms, he was fined five pounds for each neglect, which was to be paid to the captain of the company to which the slave belonged.  If a slave were killed by the enemy “in the line of duty,” the owner of such slave was paid out of the public treasury such sum of money as three freeholders, under oath, should award.  The Negroes did admirably; and four years later, on the 24th of April, 1708, the Legislature re-enacted the bill making them militia-men.  The last Act contained ten sections, and bears evidence of the pleasure the whites took in the employment of Negroes as their defenders.  If a Negro were taken prisoner by the enemy, and effected his escape back into the Province, he was emancipated.  And if a Negro captured and killed an enemy, he was emancipated, but if wounded himself, was set free at the public expense.  If he deserted to the enemy, his master was paid for his loss.