y shall not be
given as aforesaid, but shall be the proper charge of their
respective masters or mistresses, in case they should stand
in need of relief and support; notwithstanding any
manumission or instrument of freedom to them made and given;
and shall be liable at all times to be put forth to service
by the justices of the peace, or wardens of the town."[470]

It is very remarkable that there were no lawyers to challenge the
legality of such laws as the above, which found their way into the
statute books of all the New-England colonies. There could he no
conditional emancipation. If a slave were set at liberty, why he was
free, and, if he afterwards became a pauper, was entitled to the same
care as a white freeman. But it is not difficult to see that the
status of a free Negro was difficult of definition. When the Negro
slave grew old and infirm, his master no longer cared for him, and the
public was protected against him by law. Death was his most beneficent
friend.

In October, 1743, a widow lady named Comfort Taylor, of Bristol
County, Massachusetts Bay, sued and obtained judgment against a Negro
named Cuff Borden for two hundred pounds, and cost of suit "for a
grievous trespass." Cuff was a slave. An ordinary execution would have
gone against his person: he would have been imprisoned, and nothing
more. In view of this condition of affairs, Mrs. Taylor petitioned the
General Assembly of Rhode Island, praying that authority be granted
the sheriff to sell Cuff, as other property, to satisfy the judgment.
The Assembly granted her prayer as follows:--

"Upon consideration whereof, it is voted and resolved, that
the sheriff of the said county of Newport, when he shall
receive the execution against the said negro Cuff, be, and
he is hereby fully empowered to sell said negro Cuff as
other personal estate: and after the fine of L20 be paid
into the general treasury, and all other charges deducted
out of the price of said negro, the remainder to be
appropriated in said satisfying said execution."[471]

This case goes to show that in Rhode Island Negro slaves were rated,
at law, as chattel property, and could be taken in execution to
satisfy debts as other personal property.

A great many slaves availed themselves of frequent opportunities of
going away in privateers and other vessels. With but little before
them in this life, they were even will