get his own practice legalized in time.
Presuming upon this, he registered in the _manor_-book all his adult
male slaves as _copyholders_. He then gave to these separate tenements
of lands, which they were to occupy, and upon which they were to raise
whatever they might think most advantageous to their support. These
tenements consisted of half an acre of plantable and productive land to
each adult, a quantity supposed to be sufficient with industry to
furnish him and his family with provision and clothing. The tenements
were made descendible to the heirs of the occupiers or copyholders, that
is, to their children _on the plantations_; for no part of the
succession was to go out of the plantations to the issue of any foreign
wife, and, in case of no such heir, they were to fall in to the lord to
be re-granted according to his discretion. It was also inscribed that
any one of the copyholders, who would not perform his services to the
manor (the refractory and others), was to forfeit his tenement and his
privileged rank, and to go back to villain in gross and to be subject to
corporal punishment as before. "Thus," says Mr. Steele, "we run no risk
whatever in making the experiment by giving such copyhold-tenements to
all our well-deserving Negroes, and to all in general, when they appear
to be worthy of that favour."

Matters having been adjusted so far, Mr. Steele introduced the practice
of _rent_ and _wages_. He put an annual rent upon each tenement, which
he valued at so many days' labour. He set a rent also upon personal
service, as due by the copyholder to his master in his former quality of
slave, seeing that his master or predecessor had purchased a property in
him, and this be valued in the same manner. He then added the two rents
together, making so many days' work altogether, and estimated them in
the current money of the time. Having done this, he fixed a daily wages
or pay to be received by the copyholders for the work which they were to
do. They were to work 260 days in the year for him, and to have 48
besides Sundays for themselves. He reduced these days' work also to
current money. These wages he fixed at such a rate, that "they should be
more than equivalent to the rent of their copyholds and the rent of
their personal services when put together, in order to hold out to them
an evident and profitable incentive to their industry." It appears that
the rent of the tenement, half an acre, was fixed at the rate