Fugitive Slaves Part 19

=17. Virginia:--Punishment of runaways.=

=1657-8, March.= Act XVI. Against Runnaway Servants. Runnaways shall double the time of service absent at the end of their time of indenture.

For the second offence they shall be branded with the letter R. and double the time lost.--_Hening, Laws of Virginia, I. 440._

=18. Virginia:--Huie and crie after runaways.=

=1657-8, March.= "Act CXIII. Concerning Huie and cries. Whereas huy and cries after runnaway servants hath been much neglected to the greate damage and loss of the inhabitants of this colloney, _Bee it therefore enacted and confirmed by the anthorite of this present Grand a.s.sembly_, that all such huy and cries shall be signed either by the Governor or some of the Councill, or under the hand of some com'r, nameing the county where the said com'r lives, and the same shall be conveyed from house to house with all convenient speed according as the direction thereof expresseth: And every com'r of each county unto whose house by this meanes the said huy and crie shall come shall then date and subscribe the same, And the master of every house that shall make default in the speedy conveyance of any such huies and cries shall for every such default forfeit and pay unto the owners of any such runnawaie as the said hues and cries shall mention, one hundred pounds of tobacco, and where the said runnawaie servant is found he shall be apprehended and sent from constable to constable untill such runnawaie or runnawayes shall be delivered to his or theire master or mistresse, and if any neglect can be proved against the constable hee to be fined three hundred and fiftie pounds of tobacco."--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, I. 483._

=19. New Netherlands:--Runaway servants.=

=1658, April 9.= Ordinance of the Director General and Council of New Netherland renewing sundery Ordinances therein mentioned. Pa.s.sed 9 April, 1658.--"13thly, not to debauch or incite any person's servants, male or female, or to harbor them, or fugitives and strangers, longer than 24 hours without notifying the Fiscal, Magistrates, or Schouts, and all servant men and women remaine bound to fulfill and complete their contracts, on pain of arbitrary correction, according to the Ordinance of the 6 October, 1648."--_Laws of New Netherlands, 344._

=20. Virginia:--How to know a runnaway servant. [-- 3.]=

=1658-9, March.= Act III. "_It is enacted and ordained_ that the master of everie such runaway shall cutt, or cause to be cutt, the hair of all such runnawayes close above their ears, whereby they may be with more ease discovered and apprehended."--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, I. 517._

=21. Virginia:--Payment of Dutch s.h.i.+pmasters.=

=1659-60, March.= Act XV. An Act for the Pay of Dutch Masters bringing in Runnaway Servants. Whenever a master shall refuse to pay the cost of returning a runnaway from the Dutch, the payment shall be made by the secretary at his office.--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, I. 539._

=22. Virginia:--Apprehension of runaways.=

=1660-61, March.= Act X. Apprehending of Runnawayes.--"Whereas the pursuit and takeing of runnaways is hindered chiefly by the neglect of constables in making search according to their warrants, _Bee itt enacted_ that every constable shall make diligent search and inquiry through his precincts, and what constable soever shall upon search apprehend such runaways shall receive from the master of the servant for his encouragement two hundred pounds of tobaccoe, and if any constable shall neglect he shall be fined three hundred and fifty pounds of tobaccoe and caske according to former act."--_Statutes at Large.

Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 21._

=23. Virginia:--English runnaway with negroes. [-- 3.]=

=1660-1, March. Act XIII.= "_Bee itt enacted_ that in case any English servant shall runaway in company with any negroes who are incapable of making satisfaction by addition of time, Bee itt enacted that the English so running away in company with them shall serve for the time of the said negroes absence as they are to do for their owne by a former act"--_Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 26._

=24. Virginia:--Glocester to have jurisdiction over runaways.=

=1660-1, March.= It was ordered that the county of Glocester have the power to make such laws for the recovering of runaways as shall be found necessary and convenient.--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 35._

=25. Virginia:--Runaway servants.=

=1661-2, March.= Act CII. Runaways.--Penalties for running away are the same as in former acts. English servants if running away with negroes, and the negroes die or be lost, shall pay either four thousand five hundred pounds of tobacco and caske, or four years service for every negro so lost or dead.--_Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 117._

=26. Maryland:--Against runaways.=

=1662.=_ Maryland Archives, a.s.sembly Proceedings, 451._

=27. Virginia:--Pursuit of runaways to the Dutch.=

=1663, September.= Act VIII. "An Act concerning the pursuit of runawayes." It is enacted that runaways are to be pursued at the public expense, and, if they have escaped to the Dutch, letters are to be written to the Governors of those Plantations to return the runaways.

Expenses are to be paid according to the provisions of a former act.--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 187._

=28. Maryland:--Against English servants.=

=1663, October.= _Maryland Archives, a.s.sembly Proceedings, 489._

=29. New Netherlands:--Quakers, etc. refused admission to colony.=

=1663, May 17.= Ordinance of the Director General and Council of New Netherland prohibiting the bringing of Quakers and other Strollers into New Netherland. Pa.s.sed 17 May 1663.--"The Director General and Council, therefore, do hereby Order and command all Skippers, Sloop captains and others, whomsoever they may be, not to convey or bring, much less to land within this government, any such Vagabonds, Quakers and other Fugitives, whether Men or Women, until they have first addressed themselves to the government, etc.... on the pain of the Importers forfeiting a fine of Twenty pounds Flemish for every person,"

etc.--_Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, 439._

=30. Virginia:--Entertainment of runaways.=

=1666, October.= Act IX. "An act against entertayners of runaways."

Penalty for entertaining runaways increased to sixty pounds of tobacco for every day and night he or they shall be harbored.--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 239._

=31. Maryland:--Runaways and their entertainers.=

=1666, May.= "An Act providing against Runaways, and all such as shall Entertayn them. Whereas there was an act providing against Runnawaies made in the year 1650, and another act made in the year 1662, both which acts being adjudged insufficient Satisfaccion for the reparacion of their respective Masters, mrssrse, Dame, or overseers damages sustained by their servt running from them, Be it enacted by the right hon'ble, the Lord Proprietary, by and with the consent of the upper and Lower House of this present general a.s.sembly, that from and after the publicacion hereof any Servant or Servants whatsoever unlawfully absenting themselves from their said Master, Mistress, Dame, or overseer, shall serve for every day 10. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that any Master, Mistress, dame, or Overseer that shall entertain any servant unlawfully absenting himselve as aforesaid, having been forewarned by the Master, mistress, Dame, or Overseer of the said servant, shall be fined for the first night five hundred pounds of Casked tobacco, for the second one thousand pounds of casked tobacco, for every other night fifteen hundred pounds of casked tobacco, the one half to the Lord Proprietor, the other to the informer, or them that shall sue for the same within any Court of Record within this province, to be Recovered by action of debt, plaint or Informacion wherein no Essoyne, protection or wager of Lawe to be allowed, Provided that this Act nor anything therein conteynd shall not be adjudged to the predudice of any person or persons that shall apprehend any Runaway servants who are hereby required to use the best endeavors to Convey them to their owners or next justice of the peace to be conveyed from constable to constable until they be delivered to their said owners, if then living within this province. This act to continue for 3 years, or to the end of the next general a.s.sembly which shall first come."--_Maryland Archives, a.s.sembly Proceedings, 147._

=32. New Jersey--Fugitive servants.=

=1668, May 30.= Acts pa.s.sed and a.s.sented unto by the Governor, Council, and Burgess of the General a.s.sembly of the Province of New-Caesarea, or New Jersey, the 30th Day of May, Anno Domini 1668.--"Concerning Fugitives, It is Enacted by the same Authority, that every Apprentice and Servant that shall depart and absent themselves from their Master and Dames, without leave first obtained, shall be judged by the Court to double the Time of such their Absence, by future Service over and above other Damages and costs which Master and Dame shall sustain by such unlawful Departure.

"And it is also enacted, that whosoever shall be proved to have transported, or to have contrived the Transportation of any such Apprentice or Servant shall be fined _Five Pounds_, and all such Damages as the Court shall Judge, and that the Master or Dame can make appear, and if not able, to be left to the Judgement of the Court."--_New Jersey Laws, 82._

=33. Virginia:--Runaways.=

=1668, September.= Act IV. About Runawayes. Moderate corporal punishment inflicted by the master or magistrate shall not deprive the master of the satisfaction allowed by the law.--_Statutes at Large, Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 266._

=34. Virginia:--Runaways.=

=1669, October.= Act VIII. Against Runawayes. "_Be it therefore enacted_ that whosoever apprehends any runaways, whether servant by indenture, custome or covenant, not haveing a legall pa.s.se, by those in every county that shall be appointed to give pa.s.ses, or a note from his master, shall have a thousand pounds of tobacco allowed him by the publique, which tobacco shall be repaid by the service of the servant to the country when free from his master, and by the hired ffreeman immediately after expiration of his covenant to the man that apprehends."

"_And be it further enacted_ that he that takes up such runaway is hereby enjoyned first to carry him before the next justice who is to take cognizance of his good service, and to certify it in the next a.s.sembly, and then to deliver him to the constable of the parish where that justice dwells, who is to convey him to the next constable, till he be retorned to his master, and that each constable upon receipt of such runaway give his receipt, and if escape be made from any constable, the delinquent constable to pay one thousand pounds of tobacco; and for the reimbursing the publique with the tobacco disbursed to the taker up."--_Statutes at Large. Hening, Laws of Virginia, II. 273._