[10] Molema, The Bantu, pp. 245-246.
[11] Molema, The Bantu, pp. 264-266.
THE BAPTISM OF SLAVES IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Somewhat early in the history of Christianity the thought became manifest that it was at least questionable for one to hold a fellow-Christian in slavery. This went so far that at length it became "fireside law" that the baptism of a pagan slave ipso facto effected his emancipation. There was no foundation for this view in positive law, but it appears from time to time in non-legal and quasi-legal writings.
For example, The Mirror of Justice, written in Norman French in Plantagenet times, about the end of the thirteenth century, has it: "Serfs devenent francs en plusours maneres, ascuns par baptesme sicom est de ceux Sarrazins qe sont pris de Christiens ou achatez e amenes par de sa la meer de Grece e tenent cum lur serfs ..."; i.e., "Slaves become free in various ways—some by baptism, as is the case with those Saracens who are captured by Christians or purchased and brought from beyond the Sea of Greece and held as their slaves." The Mirror, while received as high authority even by so learned and capable a lawyer as Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England, is now quite discredited, the latest editor, Sir Frederick Maitland, going so far as to say of the author, "The right to lie he exercises unblushingly."
Nevertheless the book, while nearly, if not quite, worthless as an authority as to what the law actually was, is very valuable as showing what an intelligent layman at the time thought it was. The fear that baptism set a slave free was undoubtedly present among both the French and the English planters in America, including the West Indies; and this fear had much to do with their determined objection to missionary effort among the slave population. The Code Noir relieved the fears of the French in this regard; but I find no legislation on the matter in the English Settlements until 1781.
Prince Edward Island (formerly the Island of St. John) had a number of slaves, as had the other British North American Colonies; and in 1781 the Legislature of the Province passed an act respecting them (21 George III, c. 15 (P. E. I.)). This act, with the others passed in the same session, was transmitted by Governor Walter Patterson to the Home Government in a dispatch, March 1, 1781, to Lord Stormont (Earl of Mansfield), in which he says: "There will be no need to trouble your Lordship with more than the titles of the above-recited acts to show the reasons which induced me to consent to their becoming laws." From a perusal of the act it will at once be seen that the statute went far beyond the title and fixed the status of slavery upon "all Negro and Mulatto servants" then on the island, or thereafter to be imported (being slaves), and provided that they should continue to be slaves until freed by the owner. The act reads:
"An Act declaring that baptism of slaves shall not exempt them from bondage.
"Whereas some Doubts have arisen whether Slaves by becoming Christians, or being admitted to Baptism, should, by Virtue thereof, be made free:
"1. Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly, That all Slaves, whether Negroes or Mulattos, residing at present on this Island, or that may hereafter be imported or brought therein, shall be deemed Slaves, notwithstanding his, her or their Conversion to Christianity; nor shall the Act of Baptism performed on any such Negro or Mulatto alter his, her or their Condition.
"2. And be it further enacted, That all Negro and Mulatto Servants who are now on this Island, or may hereafter be imported or brought therein (being Slaves), shall continue such, unless freed by his, her or their respective Owners.
"3. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all Children born of Women Slaves shall belong to and be the property of the Masters or Mistresses of such Slaves."