Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/402

 eluding section of this remarkable act, "obligates us to wish well to the souls of men, and that religion may not be made a pretense to alter any man's property and right, and that no person may neglect to baptize their negroes orslaves for fear that thereby they should be manumitted and set free," "it shall be and is hereby declared lawful for any negro or Indian slave, or any other slave or slaves whatsoever, to receive and profess the Christian faith, and to be thereunto baptized; but, notwithstanding such slave or slaves shall receive or profess the Christian religion, and be baptized, he or they shall not thereby be manumitted or set free."

In the quarter of a century from the English Revolution to the accession of the house of Hanover, the population of the English colonies had doubled. The following table, compiled for the use of the Board of Trade, though probably somewhat short of the truth, will serve to exhibit its distribution in 1715:

By a revisal of the Maryland code, in 1715, "all negroes and other slaves already imported, or hereafter to be imported, and all children now born, or hereafter to be born of such negroes and slaves, shall be slaves during their natural lives" — an act construed as sanctioning in Maryland, though without any express provision to that effect, the Virginia rule of determining the condition of the child by that of the mother. It was expressly provided that baptism should not confer freedom. The provisions, in a long act on the subject of slaves and servants, bear a very strong resemblance to those of the Virginia code; but there were some peculiarities. "Any person whatsoever" traveling out of the county of his residence without a pass under the seal of the county, might be apprehended and carried before a magistrate, and if not sufficiently known, or unable to give a good account of himself, might, at the magistrate's discretion, be committed to jail for six months, or until the procurement of "a certificate or other justification that he or she is not a servant." Notwithstanding this certificate, no discharge was to be had till the jailor was paid ten pounds of tobacco, or one day's service for each day of imprisonment, and the person making the arrest, as a reward for his trouble, two hundred pounds of