ough to appease the public mind, and atone
for a cold-blooded murder! If he killed another man's slave, the law
demanded that he pay fifty pounds current money into the public
treasury, and the full price of the slave to the owner, but was "not
to be liable to any other punishment or forfeiture for the same."[491]
The law just referred to, passed in 1712, was re-enacted in 1722. One
change was made in it: i.e., if a white servant, having no property,
killed a slave, three justices could bind him over to the master whose
slave he killed to serve him for five years. This law had a wholesome
effect upon irresponsible white men, who often presumed upon their
nationality, having neither brains, money, nor social standing, to
punish slaves.

In 1740, May 10, the following Act became a law, showing that there
had been a wonderful change in public sentiment rejecting the
treatment of slaves:--

"XXXVII. And _whereas_, cruelty is not only highly
unbecoming those who profess themselves christians but is
odious in the eyes of all men who have any sense of virtue
or humanity; therefore, to restrain and prevent barbarity
being exercised towards slaves, _Be it enacted_ by the
authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons
whosoever, shall wilfully murder his own slave, or the slave
of any other person every such person shall, upon conviction
thereof, forfeit and pay the sum of seven hundred pounds
current money, and shall be rendered, and is hereby declared
altogether and forever incapable of holding, exercising,
enjoying or receiving the profits of any office, place or
employment, civil or military, within this Province: And in
case any such person shall not be able to pay the penalty
and forfeitures hereby inflicted and imposed, every such
person shall be sent to any of the frontier garrisons of
this Province, or committed to the work house in
Charlestown, there to remain for the space of seven years,
and to serve or to be kept at hard labor. And in case the
slave murdered shall be the property of any other person
than the offender, the pay usually allowed by the public to
the soldiers of such garrison, or the profits of the labor
of the offender, if committed to the work house in
Charlestown shall be paid to the owner of the slave
murdered. And if any person shall, on a sudden heat of
passion,