Indians. When such was the case, however, according to a strict legal interpretation, any subject Indian, if enslaved, had the right to demand his freedom from the colonial courts. Such an instance existed in the case of Virginia where the acts of 1655 and 1661 specifically forbade Indian slavery and guaranteed to the subject Indians all the rights of servants.[739] The recognition of Indian as well as negro slavery by customary law came somewhat earlier than by statute law. With the extension of the period of servitude to a life term, the change from servitude to slavery was practically completed so far as customary law was concerned. Only the enactment of legal provisions sanctioning the change was necessary to complete the process. The common use in subsequent law of the terms “servant for life”, “perpetual servant”, and “bond servant” as synonymous with the term “slave” shows how little change was really effected in the condition of the servant. Such change consisted chiefly, from the standpoint of the master, in the extension of his right to service, and consequently in the extension of his obligation of protection and maintenance, and what was still more important, in the acquisition of the right of possession of the offspring of his slaves. From the standpoint of the slave, it meant little more than the loss of the right to ultimate liberty, political and civil, and the extension of his right to protection and maintenance.[740] The legislation which marked the changing status varied in nature in the several colonies. In certain colonies the slavery status was simply recognized as being in existence by certain acts relating to slaves, without any formal declaration to the effect that Indians held in servitude should be considered slaves. In other colonies the condition of slavery as applied to Indians was legalized by general acts relating to slavery in general, and not specifying either Indians or negroes. In still other colonies the holding of Indians in a condition of actual slavery was legalized by legislative acts relating directly to Indians. An act of this latter character was passed by New York in 1678 declaring that all Indians that should come to, or be brought into the province at any time during the succeeding six months, should be sold as slaves for the benefit of the government.[741] South Carolina, in an act of 1712 relating to the “better ordering and governing of negroes and slaves”, provided that “all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes or Indians which have at any time heretofore been sold, or now are held and taken to be, or hereafter shall be brought and sold as slaves, are hereby declared slaves to all intents and purposes; excepting all such negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes or Indians which heretofore have been, or hereafter shall be for some particular merit, made and declared free, either by the Governor and Council of this province, or by their respective owners and masters; and also, excepting all such negroes,