Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/638

 618 with bond-servants, as if they were much the same kind of persons, gives us a hint at the social position of the latter. In fact, the bond-servant was little better than a slave. No person was allowed to employ a servant who was not possessed of a certificate of freedom from his last employer, or to buy from or to sell to any servant any kind of article whatever, without the consent of the master or mistress, under penalty of forfeiting to the owner treble the value of the article bought or sold, and £10 of the island currency. Any servant who offered violence to his or her employer was compelled to serve an additional twelve months, without wages, for each offense; and if a servant stole, made away with, or wasted any of his employer's property to the extent of over forty shillings, he was to serve two additional years without wages. For each day of absence from work the servant was to serve a week, but additional services on this ground were not to exceed a total of three years.

Any man-servant who married without the consent of his employer was to serve two additional years for the offense, but if a free man married a servant he was to pay the employer £20 and the servant was free. If a free man had an illegitimate child by a servant, he was to pay £20 to the employer, and to provide for the maintenance of the servant and child, or, in default, was to serve the employer double the time the servant had still to serve; while if one servant had a child by another, the man-servant, after serving his own time, had to serve double the time the woman had to serve when the offense was committed.

If any one knowingly entertained a servant, he was liable to a fine of £5 for each day and night; if it was done without knowledge the fine was £1. If one servant was guilty of entertaining another servant, he was to forfeit a year's service, or receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, at the option of the party injured. Any person who forged a certificate of freedom was to be subjected to the punishment of the pillory, and to the loss of his ears. Any servant who permitted any one to ride his master's horse, or use his cart, was to serve an additional three months for each offense.

These were the clauses of the act framed for the protection of the employers of bond-servants; those designed for the protection of the servants were much fewer, and their purport was as follows: Should a servant fall sick, he or she was to be provided for, under a penalty of £20; but if the servant's sickness arose from misconduct, or from indiscretion, or if it was the yaws or a broken limb, he or she was to serve double the time lost. No servant was to be flogged naked without a justice's order, under a penalty of £5; and no servant could be buried until the body had been seen by a justice, constable, or tithingman, or by