ver, of more than twenty-one years of age,
to a third person, except by order of some court of record
for some crime, that has been, or hereafter shall be made,
or by their own voluntary contract for a term not exceeding
seven years, shall be and hereby are declared null and void.

"And WHEREAS, divers persons now have in their service
negroes, mulattoes or others who have been deemed their
slaves or property, and who are now incapable of earning
their living by reason of age or infirmities, and may be
desirous of continuing in the service of their masters or
mistresses,--_be it therefore Enacted_, by the authority
aforesaid, that whatever negro or mulatto, who shall be
desirous of continuing in the service of his master or
mistress, and shall voluntarily declare the same before two
justices of the County in which said master or mistress
resides, shall have a right to continue in the service, and
to a maintenance from their master or mistress, and if they
are incapable of earning their living, shall be supported by
the said master or mistress, or their heirs, during the
lives of said servants, any thing in this act to the
contrary notwithstanding.

"_Provided_, nevertheless, that nothing in this act shall be
understood to prevent any master of a vessel or other person
from bringing into this State any persons, not Africans,
from any other part of the world, except the United States
of America, and selling their service for a term of time not
exceeding five years, if twenty-one years of age, or, if
under twenty-one, not exceeding the time when he or she so
brought into the State shall be twenty-six years of age, to
pay for and in consideration of the transportation and other
charges said master of vessel or other person may have been
at, agreeable to contracts made with the persons so
transported, or their patents or guardians in their behalf,
before they are brought from their own country."[624]

On the back of the bill the following indorsement was written by some
officer of the Legislature: "Ordered to lie till the second Wednesday
of the next Session of the General Court." This might have ended the
struggle for the extinction of slavery in Massachusetts, had not the
people at this time made an earnest demand for a State constitution.
As the character