"If a married woman shall slander a person the woman shall be punished by ducking, and if the damages shall be adjudged more than 500 pounds of tobacco her husband shall pay, or the woman receive a ducking for every 500 pounds so adjudged against her husband if he refused to pay the tobacco."
Unless a man was well stocked with the divine weed it was worth while to attend church with promptness and regularity:
"Enacted that the Lord's Day be kept holy and no journeys or work done thereon, and all persons inhabiting in this country shall resort every Sunday to church and abide there quietly and orderly during the common prayers and preaching, upon the penalty of being fined fifty pounds of tobacco."
Devices for public instruction and amusement were not to be neglected with impunity, even by the courts of the colony, as witness the following:
"The Court in every county shall set up near the courthouse, in a public and convenient place, a pillory, a pair of stocks, a whipping post and a ducking stool. Otherwise the Court shall be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco."
There is no record of the Court ever having been mulcted of tobacco for depriving the people of the opportunity to watch the sufferings of their friends and neighbors.
Severe laws were directed against Quakers. Prior legislation had attempted to put a damper on being any kind of a "separatist," which meant any fellow who didn't agree with the Established Church. Evidently a little further law on the subject was thought necessary, for in 1663 the Virginia Assembly passed the following act:
"Any person inhabiting this country, and entertaining a Quaker in or near his house, shall, for every time of such entertainment, be fined 5,000 pounds of tobacco, half to the county, half to the informer."
Even Virginia hospitality might well have paused in the face of such a flying start toward bankruptcy.
That a stowaway might prove costly is demonstrated by the following: