Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/116

 of a negress was relieved from the payment of the levies in case she became so disabled, either temporarily or permanently, as to be incapable of work. In an instance of this kind, the court of Henrico, in 1697, decided that the law exempting poor and impotent persons from taxation did not apply to such a woman, however grievous the disease from which she was suffering. On the other hand, the court of Lancaster declared that the master of a slave in this condition could not be required to pay the county and public levies on her account.

The principal tax fell upon slaves and servants because the land was thought to be sufficiently burdened already in the payment of quit-rents. Tobacco, on the other hand, was subject to the export duty of two shillings a hogshead, and it was supposed could bear no further imposition. Personal property in the form of horses, hogs, and cattle was looked upon as being of a value too small and uncertain to be made a subject for taxation.

The life which the slaves followed as agricultural laborers could not have differed essentially from that of the white servants engaged in the performance of the same duties; the tasks expected of both were the same, and in the fields, at least, no discrimination seems to have been made in favor of the latter. During the greater part of the seventeenth century, the negro was regarded as a mere servant for life, and as a laborer differed in that particular alone from the white person who was bound for a period of years. The opportunities open to the indented white man were innumerable, but they