he Indian was on his
native soil, and, therefore, was a more dangerous[155] subject.
Instructed by the past, and fearful of the future, the sagacious
colonists declared by this act, that those who "shall come by land"
should not be assigned to servitude for life. While this act was
passed to define the legal status of the Indian, at the same time,
and with equal force, it determines the fate of the Negro who is so
unfortunate as to find his way into the colony. "_All servants not
being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall be slaves
for their lives_." Thus, in 1670, Virginia, not abhorring
the institution, solemnly declared that "all servants not
christians"--heathen Negroes--coming into her "colony by
shipping"--there was no other way for them to come!--should "_be
slaves for their lives_!"

In 1682 the colony was in a flourishing condition. Opulence generally
makes men tyrannical, and great success in business makes them
unmerciful. Although Indians, in special acts, had not been classed as
slaves, but only accounted "servants for a term of years," the growing
wealth and increasing number of the colonists seemed to justify them
in throwing off the mask. The act of the 3d of October, 1670, defining
who should be slaves, was repealed at the November session of the
General Assembly of 1682. Indians were now made slaves,[156] and
placed upon the same legal footing with the Negroes. The sacred rite
of baptism[157] did not alter the condition of children--Indian or
Negro--when born in slavery. And slavery, as a cruel and inhuman
institution, flourished and magnified with each returning year.

Encouraged by friendly legislation, the Dutch plied the slave-trade
with a zeal equalled only by the enormous gains they reaped from the
planters. It was not enough that faith had been broken with friendly
Indians, and their children doomed by statute to the hell of perpetual
slavery; it was not sufficient that the Indian and Negro were
compelled to serve, unrequited, for their lifetime. On the 4th of
October, 1705, "an act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian
slaves, within this dominion, to be real estate,"[158] was passed
without a dissenting voice. Before this time they had been denominated
by the courts as chattels: now they were to pass in law as real
estate. There were, however, several provisos to this act. Merchants
coming into the colony with slaves, not sold, were not to be affected
by the act until t