of Trade," said that there were "about 700 Indian and Negro
slaves" in the colony. The most of these were Negro slaves. For on the
8th of July, 1715, a proclamation was issued by the governor against
the importation of Indians;[445] and on the 13th of October, 1715, a
bill was passed "_prohibiting the Importation or bringing into_" the
colony any Indian slaves. It was an exact copy of the Act of May,
1712, passed in the colony of Massachusetts.

The colony of Connecticut never established slavery by direct statute;
but in adopting a code which was ordered by the General Court of
Hartford to be "copied by the secretary into the book of public
records," it gave the institution legal sanction. This code was signed
on the 5th of September, 1646. It recognized the lawfulness of Indian
and Negro slavery. This was done under the confederacy of the "United
Colonies of New England."[446] For some reason the part of the code
recognizing slavery is omitted from the revised laws of 1715. In this
colony, as in Massachusetts, only members of the church, "and living
within the jurisdiction," could be admitted to the rights of freemen.
In 1715 an Act was passed requiring persons who desired to become
"freemen of this corporation," to secure a certificate from the
selectmen that they were "persons of quiet and peaceable behavior and
civil conversation, of the age of twenty-one years, and freeholders."
This provision excluded all free Negroes. It was impossible for one to
secure such a certificate. Public sentiment alone would have frowned
upon such an innovation upon the customs and manners of the Puritans.
On the 17th of May, 1660, the following Act was passed: "It is ordered
by this court, that neither Indian nor negar serv'ts shall be required
to traine, watch or ward in the Collo:"[447]

To determine the status of the Negro here, this Act was necessary. He
might be free, own his own labor; but if the law excluded him from the
periodical musters and trainings, from the church and civil duties,
his freedom was a mere _misnomer_. It is difficult to define the
rights of a free Negro in this colony. He was restricted in his
relations with the slaves, and in his intercourse with white people
was regarded with suspicion. If he had, in point of law, the right to
purchase property, the general prejudice that confronted him on every
hand made his warmest friends judiciously conservative. There were no
provisions made for his intellectual or