s had been apprenticed for a
term of years. Some of them, however, were very worthy persons. No
little confusion attended the fixing of the legal status of the issue
of such marriages; and it was to deter Englishwomen from such
alliances, and to determine the status of the children before the
courts, that this section was passed. Section three was clearly an _ex
post facto_ law: but the public sentiment of the colony was reflected
in it; and it stood, and was re-enacted in 1676.

Like Virginia, the colony of Maryland found the soil rich, and the
cultivation of tobacco a profitable enterprise. The country was new,
and the physical obstructions in the way of civilization numerous and
formidable. Of course all could not pursue the one path that led to
agriculture. Mechanic and trade folk were in great demand. Laborers
were scarce, and the few that could be obtained commanded high wages.
The Negro slave's labor could be made as cheap as his master's
conscience and heart were small. Cheaper labor became the cry on every
hand, and the Negro was the desire of nearly all white men in the
colony.[420] In 1671 the Legislature passed "_An Act encouraging the
importation of negroes and slaves into_" the colony, which was
followed by another and similar Act in 1692. Two motives inspired the
colony to build up the slave-trade; viz., to have more laborers, and
to get something for nothing. And, as soon as Maryland was known to be
a good market for slaves, the traffic increased with wonderful
rapidity. Slaves soon became the bone and sinew of the working-force
of the colony. They were used to till the fields, to fell the forests,
to assist mechanics, and to handle light crafts along the
water-courses. They were to be found in all homes of opulence and
refinement; and, unfortunately, their presence in such large numbers
did much to lower honorable labor in the estimation of the whites, and
to enervate women in the best white society. While the colonists
persuaded themselves that slavery was an institution indispensable to
the colony, its evil effects soon became apparent. It were impossible
to engage the colony in the slave-trade, and escape the bad results of
such an inhuman enterprise. It made men cruel and avaricious.

It was the motion of individuals to have legislative encouragement
tendered the venders of human flesh and blood; but the time came when
the government of the colony saw that an impost tax upon the slaves
imported in