ch-wardens of the parish. The profits arising from such sales
went, one half to the parish, the other half to the informer.[499] A
slave was not suffered to go off of the plantation where he was
appointed to live, without a pass signed by his master or the
overseer. There was an exception made in the case of Negroes wearing
liveries. Negro slaves were not allowed the use of fire-arms or other
weapons, except they were armed with a certificate from their master
granting the coveted permission. If they hunted with arms, not having
a certificate, any Christian could apprehend them, seize the weapons,
deliver the slave to the first justice of the peace; who was
authorized to administer, without ceremony, twenty lashes upon his or
her bare hack, and send him or her home. The master had to pay the
cost of arrest and punishment. The one exception to this law was, that
one Negro on each plantation or in each district could carry a gun to
shoot game for his master and protect stock, etc.; but his certificate
was to be in his possession all the time. If a Negro went from the
plantation on which he resided, to another plantation or place, he was
required by statute to travel in the most generally frequented road.
If caught in another road, not much travelled, except in the company
of a white man, it was lawful for the man who owned the land through
which he was passing to seize him, and administer not more than forty
lashes. If Negroes visited each other in the night season,--the only
time they could visit,--the ones who were found on another plantation
than their master's were punished with lashes on their naked back, not
exceeding forty; while the Negroes who had furnished the entertainment
received twenty lashes for their hospitality. In case any slave, who
had not been properly fed and clothed by his master, was convicted of
stealing cattle, hogs, or corn from another man, an action of trespass
could be maintained against the master in the general or county court,
and damages recovered.[500]

Here, as in the other colonies, the greatest enemy of the colonists
was an accusing conscience. The people started at every breath of
rumor, and always imagined their slaves conspiring to cut their
throats. There was nothing in the observed character of the slaves to
justify the wide-spread consternation that filled the public mind. Nor
was there any occasion to warrant the passage of the Act of 1741,
respecting conspiracies among slaves.