It is evident from these events and from the legislation of the era that, except for the earnest work of such a sect as the Quakers, there was little genuine effort for the improvement of the social condition of the Negro people in the colonies. They were not even regarded as potential citizens, and both in and out of the system of slavery were subjected to the harshest regulations. Towards amicable relations with the other racial elements that were coming to build up a new country only the slightest measure of progress was made. Instead, insurrection after insurrection revealed the sharpest antagonism, and any outbreak promptly called forth the severest and frequently the most cruel punishment.
Footnote 22: [(return)]
New International Encyclopædia, Article "Slavery."
Footnote 23: [(return)]
Coman: Industrial History, 42.
Footnote 24: [(return)]
New International Encyclopædia, Article "Slavery."
Footnote 25: [(return)]
Hening: Statutes, II, 170.
Footnote 26: [(return)]
Hening: Statutes, I, 146.
Footnote 27: [(return)]
Ibid., I, 552.
Footnote 28: [(return)]
Hurd, commenting on an act of 1649 declaring all imported male servants to be tithables, speaks as follows (230): "Tithables were persons assessed for a poll-tax, otherwise called the 'county levies.' At first, only free white persons were tithable. The law of 1645 provided for a tax on property and tithable persons. By 1648 property was released and taxes levied only on the tithables, at a specified poll-tax. Therefore by classing servants or slaves as tithables, the law attributes to them legal personality, or a membership in the social state inconsistent with the condition of a chattel or property."
Footnote 29: [(return)]
Hening: Statutes, III, 537.
Footnote 30: [(return)]
Virginia Magazine of History, X, 281.