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Show -,...-.. ,.. 186 DESPOTISM at least was t he interpretation given ~Y the coLnts of Virgi nia, subsequently to t he revolution, (sec Pallas 4· a/. v. Hill 4· al., 2 Hcnings' a nd. Mumford's Re· ports, 149,) to an act of thi::; ~late, re-pealing. all restraints on t raffic with t he India ns, and declanng that t rade thenceforth free and open w ith "all Indians whatsoever." But, too ignora nt or too helpless to vindicate t heir rights, " mul titudes of t he descendant~ of I ndians in Virg inia," so says Hcning, the learned a nd laborious editor of the Virginia statutes, "are •till unjustly deprived of t heir liberty," in spite of this decision,-one proof, among others, how Jitlle mere legal right., though officially declared by the highest tribuna ls, avails the feeble and defenceless. By the Virai nia code, as revised in 1705, "all servants import~d by sea or la nd, who were not Christ ia ns in t heir native country, (except Turks a nd l\Ioon~ in amity wit h her l\fajesty, and others who can make due proof of their being free in E ngland, or any other Christian country, before they were shipped in order to tra nsportation hither,) shall be accounted and be slaves, a nd as such be here bought a nd sold, notw withstanding a conversion to Christia nity afterwards;" "all children to be bond or free, according to the condition of t heir mothers." But even in this act, under which near half the population of Virg inia are still held as slaves, t he original idea, t hat no Christian could be red uced to slavery, is still sufiiciently ap· parent. In the case of servants newly brought into the colony, relig ion, not color, nor race, is made the :-;ole test of distinction between slavery and indented service. W hatever may have been the practice, it is plain enough, t hat under t his act, which c?nt inued u naltered down to the Revolut ion, and whiCh still forms t he basis of slave property in Virginia, no negro, even, who was a Christian in his native count ry, could, if brought to Virginia, be held there as a slave. This r-ode of 1705 also prov ided, that persons con· viet in E ngland of crime::; punishable with loss of IN Ai\lERICA. 187 li fe or member, and "all negroes, mulattoes, a nd Indians," should be incapacitated to hold oflice in the colony. W hite women having bastard children .by negroes or mulattoes were to pay the parish ftfteen pounds, or, in default of payment, to be tiold for f1ve year~, the child to be bound out as a servant for thirty-one years. "And for a further prevention of that abominable mixture a nd spuriou~ issue, which hereafter may increase in th is her Majesty's colony .and dominion, as well by English and other white men and women intermarrying with negroes and mulattoes," as by u nlawful connection with t hem, it was e nacted, that any man or woman intermarrying with a negro or mulatto, bond or free, should be imprisoned six mont hs a nd fined ten pounds,- the minister celebrating t he marriage to be fined a lso. Thus early was the bugbear. cry of "amalgamation " raised in V irg inia. f::)irnilar Jaws enacted in t he other colonies operated to degrade and keep down the colored race, and to prevent the institution of ::~lavery from assuming t hat patriarchal character, by whic h, in other countries, it is greatly softened, and some-times has been superseded. .... Nothi ng, i ndeed, is more striking than the diHerent treatment bestowed by Anglo-American slave-holder~, especially those of t he United States, upon their own children by slave mothers, a nd the behavior of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, a nd French Rlave-holders towards their children similarly begotten. In the slave· holding colonies of these latter nations, t hat white man is regarded as unnatural, mean, a nd cruel, who do~s not, if his ability permit, secure for hi~ colored c_luldreu emancipation a nd some pecuniary provision. Colored children a re not less numerous in the United State:s; but t here conven tional decorum forbids the white father to recognize his colored oflSpring at all, or to make a ny provision for them. They a rc still held and sold as slaves; and among this unfortunate class may be found the descendants of more than one signer of t he Declaration of Independence, patriot |