yment of all taxes, and all
negroes, male and female being imported shall be accompted tythable,
and all Indian servants male or female however procured being adjudged
sixteen years of age shall be likewise tythable from which none shall
be exempted."[147] Beverley says that "the male servants, and slaves
of both sexes," were employed together. It seems that white women were
so scarce as to be greatly respected. But female Negroes and Indians
were taxable; although Indian children, unlike those of Negroes, were
not held as slaves.[148] Under the LIV. Act there is but one class
exempted from tax,--white females, and, we might add, persons under
sixteen years of age.[149] So what Mr. Bancroft mistakes as repressive
legislation against the slave-trade is only an exemption of white
women, and intended to encourage their coming into the colony.

The legal distinction between slaves and servants was, "slaves for
life, and servants for a time."[150] Slavery existed from 1619 until
1662, without any sanction in law. On the 14th of December, 1662, the
foundations of the slave institution were laid in the old law maxim,
"_Partus sequitur ventrum_,"--that the issue of slave mothers should
follow their condition.[151] Two things were accomplished by this act;
viz., slavery received the direct sanction of statutory law, and it
was also made hereditary. On the 6th of March, 1655,--seven years
before the time mentioned above,--an act was passed declaring that all
Indian children brought into the colony by friendly Indians should not
be treated as slaves,[152] but be instructed in the trades.[153] By
implication, then, slavery existed legally at this time; but the act
of 1662 was the first direct law on the subject. In 1670 a question
arose as to whether Indians taken in war were to be servants for a
term of years, or for life. The act passed on the subject is rather
remarkable for the language in which it is couched; showing, as it
does, that it was made to relieve the Indian, and fix the term of the
Negro's bondage beyond a reasonable doubt. "_It is resolved_ and
enacted that all servants not being Christians imported into this
colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives; but what shall
come by land shall serve, if boyes or girles, until thirty yeares of
age, if men or women twelve yeares and no longer."[154] This
remarkable act was dictated by fear and policy. No doubt the Indian
was as thoroughly despised as the Negro; but t