Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/40

 the law had in view. The reward was reduced to two hundred pounds whenever the fugitive was captured at a greater distance than ten miles from his master&#8217;s home, and this amount was to be paid out of the public levy in the county to which he belonged. No claim was to be considered valid until it had been clearly shown to the justices that the runaway and his captor had not entered into a mutually advantageous arrangement as to his arrest; that the arrest occurred at a certain distance from the plantation on which he had been employed; that the claim had or had not been purchased from the captor; and that the person urging it in the court was or was not the master or overseer of the fugitive. If the claim was found to be tainted with fraud, the person guilty of the offence, in case he was unable to pay the one thousand pounds imposed as a penalty, was compelled to submit to corporal punishment in the discretion of the court.

If the servant had absconded on two occasions, the master was directed to keep the hair of the fugitive closely cut, or forfeit two hundred pounds as often as he was subsequently apprehended. Each constable into whose hands he was delivered to be returned to his owner was authorized by the commissioner&#8217;s warrant to give him a severe whipping. The heavy fine which was imposed in case a captured servant was allowed to escape by the negligence of one of these officers was, in 1670, reduced from one thousand pounds to four hundred pounds of tobacco. Under the regulations in operation immediately previous to the enactment of the statute of 1686, as soon as the period for which a captured runaway was bound had expired, the master was required to deliver him at once into the hands of the nearest justice of