The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
It developed later that these laws did not meet all requirements, for
there were in subsequent years so many illegitimate children born of
such mothers that they became a public charge.[463] Those of Negro
blood were bound out by law. According to Russell, "In 1727 it was
ordered that David James a free negro boy, be bound to Mr. James Isdel
'who is to teach him to read ye bible distinctly also ye trade of a
gunsmith that he carry him to ye Clark's office & take Indenture to
that purpose.' "By the Warwick County court it was 'ordered that
Malacai, a mulatto boy, son of mulatto Betty be, by the Church Wardens
of this Parish bound to Thomas Hobday to learn the art of a planter
according to law.' By order of the Norfolk County court, about 1770, a
free negro was bound out 'to learn the trade of a tanner.'"[464]
In making more stringent regulations for servants and slaves, North
Carolina provided in 1715 that if a white servant woman had a child by
a Negro, mulatto or Indian, she must serve her master two years extra
and should pay to the Church wardens immediately on the expiration of
that time six pounds for the use of the parish or be sold four years
for the use aforesaid.[465] A clergyman found guilty of officiating at
such a marriage should be fined fifty pounds. This law, according to
Bassett, did not succeed in preventing such unions. Two ministers were
indicted within two years for performing such a marriage ceremony. "In
one case the suit was dropped, in the other case the clergyman went
before the Chief Justice and confessed as it seems of his own
accord.... In 1727 a white woman was indicted in the General Court
because she had left her husband and was cohabiting with a negro
slave.... So far as general looseness was concerned this law of 1715
had no force. Brickell, who was a physician, says that white men of
the colony suffered a great deal from a malignant kind of venereal
disease which they took from the slaves."[466]
By the law of 1741 therefore the colony endeavored to prevent what the
General Assembly called "that abominable mixture and spurious issue,
which hereafter may increase in this government, by white men and
women intermarrying with Indians, Negroes, mustees, or mulattoes." It
was enacted that if any man or woman, being free, should intermarry
with an Indian, Negro, mustee or mulatto man or woman, or any person
of mixed blood, to the third generation, bond or free, he should, by
judgment of the county court forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds,
proclamation money, to the use of the parish.[467] It was also
provided that if any white servant woman should during the time of her
servitude, be delivered of a child, begotten by any Negro, mulatto or
Indian, such servant, over and above the time she was by this act to
serve her master or owner for such offence, should be sold by the
Church wardens of the parish, for two years, after the time by
indenture or otherwise had expired.[468]
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