Since the appearance of Moore's able monograph it is perhaps needless to explain that the facts are against these comfortable theories. Slavery was authorized by statute in Massachusetts under sanction of the Mosaic law; and so the children of slave mothers were also slaves.[682] The evils of the institution may, indeed, have been somewhat mitigated by the simple industrial conditions which then prevailed. The climate and soil were ill suited to slave labor. Occasionally there may have been a mind far enough ahead of the age to perceive dimly the social danger lurking in the system. Almost the only clear voice raised against it is that of Samuel Sewall,[683] whose practice nevertheless was not always consistent with his doctrine.[684] Mixture of race was not favored. But not until 1705 was intermarriage between a white person and a negro or mulatto forbidden by statute.[685] Through Sewall's influence the prohibition was not then extended to Indians;[686] and he succeeded in having a clause retained in the act enjoining that "no master shall unreasonably deny marriage to his negro with one of the same nation."[687] A passage in his diary shows that the laws relating to banns, as also, it is safe to infer, those regarding celebration and registration, were applied in the case of such unions; while at the same time we are given a pleasing picture of the humane treatment which slaves sometimes received from their masters. On September 26, 1700, he records that "Mr. John Wait and Eunice his Wife, and Mrs. Debora Thair come to Speak to me about the Marriage of Sebastian, Negro Serv^t of said Wait, with Jane, Negro Serv^t of said Thair. Mr. Wait desired they might be published in order to Marriage. Mrs. Thair insisted that Sebastian might have one day in six allow'd him for the support of Jane, his intended wife and her children, if it should please God to give her any. Mr. Wait now wholly declin'd that, but freely offer'd to allow Bastian Five pounds, in Money [=p] a[=n]um towards the Su[=p]ort of his children [=p] said Jane (besides Sabastians cloathing and Diet). I persuaded Jane and Mrs. Thair to agree to it, and so it was concluded; and Mrs. Thair gave up the Note of Publication to Mr. Wait for him to carry it to W^m Griggs, the Town Clerk, and to Williams in order to have them published according to law."[688] [Footnote 682: Compare sec. 91 of the "Body of Liberties," upon which the apologists have mainly rested their case, with the later version of the provision: WHITMORE, _Col. Laws of Mass._ (1660-72), 53, 125; _ibid._ (1672-86), 10; and read MOORE'S convincing argument as to the significance of the altered wording: _Notes on the Hist. of Slavery in Mass._, 10-18. For Connecticut see FOWLER, "The Historical Status of the Negro," in DAWSON'S _Hist. Mag._, 3d series, III, 12-18, 81-85, 148-53, 260-66; STEINER, "Hist. of Slavery in Conn.," _J. H. U. S._, XI, 371-452; and HURD, _Law of Freedom and Bondage_, I, 267 ff.]