differed from that of the other in that the former at the
expiration of his term of service could become free whereas the latter
was doomed to servitude for life. In the absence of social
distinctions between these two classes of laborers there arose
considerable intermingling growing out of a community of interests. In
the colonies in which the laborers were largely of one class or the
other not so much of this admixture was feared, but in the plantations
having a considerable sprinkling of the two miscegenation usually
ensued.

The following, therefore, was enacted in Maryland in 1661 as a
response to the question of the council to the lower house as to what
it intended should become of such free women of the English or other
Christian nations as married Negroes or other slaves.[451] The
preamble reads: "And forasmuch as divers freeborn _English_ women,
forgetful of their free condition, and to the disgrace of our nation,
do intermarry with negro slaves,[452] by which also divers suits may
arise, touching the issue of such women, and a great damage doth
befall the master of such negroes, for preservation whereof for
deterring such free-born women from such shameful matches, _be it
enacted_: That whatsoever free-born woman shall intermarry with any
slave, from and after the last day of the present assembly, shall
serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband; and
that all the issues of such free-born women, so married, shall be
slaves as their fathers were." "And be it further enacted: That all
the issues of _English_, or other free-born women, that have already
married negroes, shall serve the master of their parents, till they be
thirty years of age and no longer."[453]

According to A. J. Calhoun, however, all planters of Maryland did not
manifest so much ire because of this custom among indentured servants.
"Planters, said he, "sometimes married white women servants to Negroes
in order to transform the Negroes and their offspring into
slaves.[454] This was in violation of the ancient unwritten law that
the children of a free woman, the father being a slave, follow the
status of their mother and are free. The custom gave rise to an
interesting case. "Irish Nell," one of the servants brought to
Maryland by Lord Baltimore, was sold by him to a planter when he
returned to England. Following the custom of other masters who held
white women as servants, he soon married her to a Negro named Butler
to pr