"Whereas, some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free; _It is enacted and declared by this grand assembly, and the authority thereof_, that the confering of baptism doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that divers masters, freed from this doubt, may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, though slaves, or those of greater growth, if capable to be admitted to that sacrament."--_Hening's Statutes, vol. 2, p. 260._] [Footnote 10: Hening, vol. 2, p. 283.] [Footnote 11: Hening, vol. 5, p. 547-8.] [Footnote 12: In 1753 Virginia passed a statute, occupying some twelve or fifteen pages of the statute book, and intended to cover the whole general subject of slavery. One of the sections of this act is as follows: "That all and every other act and acts, clause and clauses, heretofore made, for or concerning any matter or thing within the provision of this act, shall be and are hereby repealed."--_Hening's Statutes, vol. 6, p. 369._ No reservation being made, by this section, of rights acquired under former statutes, and slave property being a matter dependent entirely upon statute, all title to slave property, acquired under former acts, was by this act annihilated; and all the slaves in the State were made freemen, _as against all prior legislation_. And the slaves of the State were thenceforward held in bondage only by virtue of another section of the same act, which was in these words: "That all persons _who have been_, or shall be imported into this colony, by sea or land, and were not Christians in their native country, except Turks and Moors in amity with his majesty, and such who can prove their being free in England, or any other Christian country, before they were shipped for transportation hither, shall be accounted slaves, and as such be here bought and sold, notwithstanding a conversion to Christianity after their importation."--_Hening, vol. 6, p. 356-7._ The act also provided, "That all children shall be bond or free, according to the condition of their mothers and the particular directions of this act."] [Footnote 13: The following is the preamble and the important enacting clause of this statute of 1740: