In the year 1705 the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania enacted that “WHEREAS some Difficulties have arisen within this Province, about the Manner of Trial and Punishment of _Negroes_ committing Murder, Manslaughter, Buggery, Burglary, Rapes, Attempts of Rapes ... it shall and may be lawful for two justices of the Peace of this Province, who shall be particularly commissionated by the Governor for that Service, within the respective Counties thereof, and Six of the most substantial Freeholders of the Neighbourhood to hear, examine, try and determine ... and shall be punished by Death. And for an Attempt of Rape or Ravishment on any white Woman or Maid, and for robbing, stealing, or fraudulently taking and carrying away any Goods, living or dead, above the Value of _Five Pounds_, every _Negroe_, upon Conviction of any of said Crimes, shall be whipped Thirty-nine Lashes, and branded on the Forehead with the Letter R or T, and exported out of this Province by the Master or Owner, within Six Months after Conviction, never to return into the same, upon Pain of Death, and shall be kept in Prison till Exportation at their Masters or Owners or their own Charge.”[245] By an act passed December 10, 1712, the colony of New York provided that “all and every Negro Indian or other Slave, who ... shall murder or otherwise kill ... or conspire or attempt the Death of any of Her Majesty’s liege people, not being Slaves, or shall commit or attempt any rape on any of said Subjects, or shall wilfully burn any dwelling-house, barn, etc. ... or shall wilfully mutilate, mayhem or dismember any of the said Subjects not being Slaves as aforesaid, or shall wilfully murder any Negro, Indian or Mallatto Slave within this Colony, and shall thereof be convicted before three or more of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace ... in Conjunction with five of the principal ffreeholders of the County wherein such fact shall be committed, ... or before any Court of Oyer and Terminer or General Gaole Delivery ... shall suffer the pains of Death in such manner and with such circumstances as the aggravation or enormity of their Crimes in the Judgment of the Justices of those Courts aforesaid, or as in the judgment of Seven of the said Justices and ffreeholders they shall merit and require.”[246] By an act passed March 11, 1713–14, the General Assembly of the Province of New Jersey made the above enactment the law of New Jersey, and added the provision that “if any Negro, Indian or Mulatto Slave shall attempt to ravish any white Woman or Maid ... any two Justices of the Peace are hereby authorized to inflict such corporal Punishment, not extending to Life or Limb, upon such Slave or Slaves so offending, as to the said Justices shall seem meet.”