Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/112

 the applicability to the Colony of this provision arose as soon as the first mulatto sprung from a white father was born. Was the condition of the father or the mother to be the condition of the child? Interest as well as the transmitted law of the English people bearing upon the precise point dictated that the child should be a slave, and during the whole existence of the institution of bondage in Virginia, there was no relaxation in the enforcement of this regulation. It was considered to be unjust to place young negroes on the footing of tithables until they had acquired strength to labor in the fields. In 1658, all imported slaves above sixteen were listed for taxation. Twelve years was decided to be the proper age in 1680, but at a later period sixteen was again adopted, and the list of the youthful tithables was made up when the season for working tobacco arrived. All African children brought into the Colony were required to be introduced before the court in three months after they had reached Virginia, in order to have their ages properly adjudged. To ensure absolute accuracy in the returns of young slaves, there was at one time a provision that the birth of every black or mulatto child who first saw the light in the Colony should be entered in the registry of the parish where he or she was born. The negroes remaining in the hands of merchants and factors were exempted from the operation of the levy because they were not in the list of tithables.