to the colony would not impair the trade, while it would
aid the government very materially. In 1696 "_An Act laying an
imposition on negroes, slaves and while persons imported_" into the
colony was passed. It is plain from the reading of the caption of the
above bill, that it was intended to reach three classes of persons;
viz., Negro servants, Negro slaves, and white servants. The word
"imported" means such persons as could not pay their passage, and were
therefore indentured to the master of the vessel. When they arrived,
their time was hired out, if they were free, for a term of years, at
so much per year;[421] but if they were slaves the buyer had to pay
all claims against this species of property before he could acquire a
fee simple in the slave. Some historians have too frequently
misinterpreted the motive and aim of the colonial Legislatures in
imposing an impost tax upon Negroes and other servants imported into
their midst. The fact that the law applied to white persons does not
aid in an interpretation that would credit the makers of the act with
feelings of humanity. A people who could buy and sell wives did not
hesitate to see in the indentured white servants property that ought
to be taxed. Why not? These white servants represented so many dollars
invested, or so many years of labor in prospect! So all persons
imported into the colony of Maryland, "Negroes, slaves, and white
persons," were taxed as any other marketable article. A swift and
remorseless civilization against the stolid forces of nature made men
indiscriminate and cruel in their impulses to obtain. Public sentiment
had been formulated into law: the law contemplated "servants and
slaves" as chattel property; and the political economists of the
Province saw in this species of property rich gains for the
government. It was condition, circumstances, that made the servant or
slave; but at length it was nationality, color.

When, on the threshold of the eighteenth century, "white indentured"
servants were rapidly ceasing to exist under color or sanction of law,
religious bigotry and ecclesiastical intolerance joined hands with the
supporters of Negro slavery in a crusade[422] against the Irish
Catholics. In 1704 the Legislature passed "_An Act imposing three
pence per gallon on rum and wine, brandy and spirits, and twenty
shillings per poll for negroes, for raising a supply to defray the
public charge of this province, and twenty shillings, per poll,