lonists were confined
to Maryland and Louisiana. They also had slaves in their homes and on
their plantations, but it is known that they provided for their
religious needs and were obliged by their religion to regard their
slaves as human beings and not as mere chattels. Under Lord
Baltimore's government in the English Colony of Maryland, the Catholic
Proprietary himself tells us in his answer to the Lords in 1676,
concerning the law that had been enacted "to encourage the baptizing
and the instructing of those kinds of servants in the faith of
Christ."[497] There had been remissness towards the slaves in this
respect among other sections of the population, but such denominations
were spurred to action by the example of Catholics. The work of
Spanish and French missionaries, as Dr. Woodson points out, influenced
the education of the Negro throughout America.[498] The freedom and
welfare of the unhappy slaves were especially promoted in the famous
"Code Noir," the most humane legislation in their behalf which had
been devised before the repeal of slavery. In 1724, M. de Bienville
drew up the "Code Noir," containing all the legislation applicable to
slaves in Louisiana, which remained in force until 1803. This code,
signed in the name of the King, and inspired by Catholic teaching and
practice, was probably based on a similar code, which was promulgated
in 1685, in Santo Domingo, by Louis XIV, King of France. The Edict
ordained that all slaves be instructed and that they be admitted to
the sacraments and rites of the Roman Catholic Church. It allowed the
slave time for instruction, worship and rest, not only every Sunday,
but every festival usually observed by the Church. It prohibited under
severe penalties all masters and managers from corrupting their female
slaves, and provided for the Christian marriage of the slave. It did
not allow the Negro, husband, wife or infant children, to be sold
separately. It forbade the use of torture or immoderate and inhuman
punishments. It obliged the owners to maintain their old and decrepit
slaves. If the Negroes were not fed or clothed as the law prescribed,
or if they were in any way cruelly treated, they might apply to the
procurer, who was obliged by his office to protect them. A somewhat
similar edict, known as the Spanish Code, was promulgated in the
Spanish West Indies in 1789.

At the time of the Revolutionary War such Catholic patriots as Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, the