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Show ' - -·~· 184 DJ.;SJlOTlS:\1 "all servants, not being Christians, imported by shipping, shall be slaves for their lives," those imported by land to serve for a limited time. Freedom had just been <.lenied to Christian negroes converted in the colony, or born there; but the assembly did not venture to usurp any such jurisdiction over stranger Christians. As a necessary pendant to the slave code, the system of subjecting the free to disabilities now also began. Thus .it was enacted in 1G70, that negro women, though free, should be rated and taxed as "tithablcs," that is, should pay a poll tax, exacted in the ca~e of whites only from the men. Free negroes and Indians were also disqualified to purchase or hold white servants. These acts, the legislative basis of slavery in Virginia, were enacted during the government of Sir William Berkeley, well known for his famous apostrophe-" I thank God we have no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred yf'ars; for learning has brought diHobcdicnce, and hrresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them; and libels against the best government. God keep us from both! "-Nor was this wi:;h uttered in vain. The establishment of slavery secured its fulfilment. Virginia has no free schools t.o this day; none, at least, worthy of the name. She has, indeed, a few printing-presses ; but they are muzzled, gagged, -effectually restrained from libels against" the best government "-for such in that state the oligarchy of slave-holders is held to be. 'fhe virtuou!:i resolution of Virginia on the subject of Indians did not last long; nor did freedom from schools and printing-presses keep out disobedience and rcbc:llion. Tile immediate cause of Eacon's insurrPcfion, so famous in the colonial anuals of Virginia, was ihc refusal of Berkeley to authorize expeditions against the JndianR, who had lately committed some depretlat ion:-1. Bcrk(•Jpy prcferrPd a scheme of defence by forts. 'rhc colonists alleged that his interest in the fur-trade made him too lcnd<>r of the Indians; l IN' AMF.RlCA. 185 but a law ~nactcd in 16?6, by Bacon's insurgent assembly, m1ght seem to 1mply, that ihe eacrcrne~s of the colonists for oHCnsivc war was not alto~cther disinterested. Into an act for the prosccuti~n of the Indian war a provision was inserted, that Indian prisoners might be held as slaves; and notwithstanding the repeal, after the suppression of the insurrection, of all the other of Bacon's laws, this provision was still continued in force. In 1682, during Culpepper's administration, the slave code of Virginia received some additions. Slaves were forbidden to carry arms, ofiCnsive or defensive; or to go otr their ma8tcrs plantation, without a written pass; or to lift hand against a Chris· tian, even in self-defence. Runaways, who refused lo be apprehended, might be lawfully killed. Already had the Internal slave· trade ,bcgun,-ihat trade in which Virginia still bear. so unhappy a part. As yet, however, the colony was purchaser, not seller, and by a partial repeal of the existing provision in favor of stranger Christians, facilities for purchasing were extended. The assembly enacted that all servants, whether negroes, Moors, mulattoes, or Indians, (including those bought of the neighboring or other Indian tribes,) brought into the colony by sea or land, whether converted to Christianity or not, provided lh~y were not of Christian parentage and country, m1ght be held as slave5. Yet, with all t his eagerness for new purchases1 the evils of the slave system were already felt. The colony was sufl'cring severely from an over·production of tobacco; to such a degree, that lhc poorer free people could scarcely purchase clothes for themselves ;-an over-production to which, as Culpepper stated, in an official report, "the buying of blacks had exceedingly contributed." In 1691, shortly after llie breaking out of the first Fren~h and Indian war, policy or humanity, or both co~bmed, recovered t he mastery, and the 1:1lqvery of 1ndlans, sanctioned by statqte ailwe the timC of Bacon's rebellion, Wa~ now finally abolished. Such Hi' |