Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/46

 and to restore four times the value of the articles which had been carried off.

In the Assembly of 1619, a law was passed that provided that the servant should receive a whipping for every oath he uttered, and should afterwards confess his guilt in the parish church when the congregation had convened for religious services. There is no record of this statute having been repealed. The regulation imposing a fine of tobacco upon all freemen who had been heard to swear was steadily enforced, and there is no reason why there should have been any relaxation of the special punishment inflicted for the same offence upon those in their employment.

A certain degree of liberty in the sexual relations of the female servants with the male, and even with their masters, might have been expected, but there are numerous indications that the general sentiment of the Colony condemned it, and sought by appropriate legislation to restrain and prevent it. A woman who was got with child by her employer was, upon the expiration of her term, delivered to the church wardens of the parish in which she resided, who were empowered to dispose of her for two years, the tobacco thus obtained to be devoted to parochial objects. The purpose that this regulation had in view was of a twofold character. The wardens secured by the sale of the mother for a new period of service, the means to meet any charge which the bastard might impose upon the parish; on the other hand, her master was prevented from deriving any advantage from his criminal association with her such as would have resulted from an extension of the term for which she was bound to him.