shall be Judged thereunto by
Authority, or such as willing have sold or shall sell
themselves, In which Case a Record of Such servitude shall
be entered in the Court of Sessions held for that
Jurisdiction where Such Masters shall Inhabit, provided that
nothing in the Law Contained shall be to the prejudice of
Master or Dame who have or shall by any Indenture or
Covenant take Apprentices for Terme of Years, or other
Servants for Term of years or Life."[229]

By turning to the first chapter on Massachusetts, the reader will
observe that the above is the Massachusetts law of 1641 with but a
very slight alteration. We find no reference to slavery directly, and
the word slave does not occur in this code at all. Article 7, under
the head of "Capital Laws," reads as follows: "If any person forcibly
stealeth or carrieth away any mankind he shall be put to death."

On the 27th of January, 1683, Col. Thomas Dongan was sent to New York
as its governor, and charged with carrying out a long list of
instructions laid down by his Royal Highness the Duke of York. Gov.
Dongan arrived in New York during the latter part of August; and on
the 13th of September, 1683, the council sitting at Fort James
promulgated an order calling upon the people to elect representatives.
On the 17th October, 1683, the General Assembly met for the first time
at Fort James, in the city of New York. It is a great misfortune that
the journals of both houses are lost. The titles of the Acts passed
have been preserved, and so far we are enabled to fairly judge of the
character of the legislation of the new assembly. On the 1st November,
1683, the Assembly passed "_An Act for naturalizing all those of
foreign nations_ at present inhabiting within this province and
professing Christianity, and for encouragement for others to come and
settle within the same."[230] This law was re-enacted in 1715, and
provided, that "nothing contained in this Act is to be construed to
discharge or set at liberty any servant, bondman or slave, but only to
have relation to such persons as are free at the making hereof."[231]

So the mild system of domestic slavery introduced by the Dutch now
received the sanction of positive British law. Most of the slaves in
the Province of New York, from the time they were first introduced,
down to 1664, had been the property of the West-India Company. As such
they had small plots of land to work for their