Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-03-23

slave, any master gave blow by
reason of which the slave died, no.
body could be punished or prosecut-
ed therefor. L was also declared
that any negro, or other slave, pre-.
pairing, exhibiting or administering
any medicine whatever. should be adj
judged guilty of felony, and suffer
death without benefit of clergy. This
provision, however, was SO mitiga! ed
as to relieve from the penalty the
slave who acted i'll obedience to bis
masters orders, if no malicious in
tent appeared aud no harm cnsued.
10 steal slave Chat is, from u
Vir"inia master. in the colony was
capital crime. All servants imported.
nevertheless, were ipso facto slaves,
unless they were Christian whites or
proved that they were positively free
III England, or i'll the country from
which they came. BY an act of 1927
slaves and their increase could be Mt
tacbed to any lands and .tenements
settled, conveyed or devised in fee
tail. or for life or lives, and 90 us
part of the freehold. There was much
Legislation by Governor and council.
or by the House of Burge ,ses, for
the encouragement and protection of
colonial homo production; but spe.
cial attention is called only to the
high tariff on imported slaves toward
the latter part Of the lust century. In
1857 the import duty had reached 80
per centum nj valorem.
Unless i'll case Of contesting
claimants there was precious little
scrutiny in earlier colonial times, into
the title whereby any one obtained
or held his slave. Not only negroes
and mulattoes, but Indians and even
whites Tin some cases) were made
slaves by no regular process what
ever. The later laws irresistibly
raised the Inference that servants,
imported and other. had been and
were reduced to slave v de facto, and
Indians were commonly treated as
slaves, of course, unless they belong
cd to friendly or tributary tribe,
with which the colony hud treaty.
All captive or strange Indians were
sold or dist ibuted by the Governor
or commanCer-in chief, or quietly ap
propriated by whomsoevor held or
seized them. Even frindly and trib-
utnry Indians were liable for certain
offences to be transported to the
West Indies and there sold.and when
caught out OF the limits to which they
were bound by treaty, they could be
enslaved by anybody, unless they
had license from the Governor. On
II license they could como into the
colony without arms to fish or oys
ter, and to gather tuckahoe, cuttone
mons, wild onts, rushes, puckoon, Sc.
THEY COULD DE BRANDED.
Indians, as well as negroes and
mulnttoes, convicted of any offence
within benefit of clergy, were burned
or branded in the hand, except in
cases of man slaughter aud burglary,
when they were banged. For fire
hunting m Indian forfeited his gun;
he could not testify against white
inan, and when allowed to testify in
the case of n negro, mulatto or an
other Indian. lie was warned by the
magistrate OF Judge ns follows: You
are brought hither as witness, and,
by the direction of the law, I am to
tell you, before you give your evi.
dence, that you must tell the truth,
tue whole truth and nothing but the
truth, and that if it be found hereaf
ter that yon tell lie, and give false
testimony in this matter, yon must
for go doing have both your ears
nailed to the pillofy, and cut of, and
rec:ive thirty nine lashes on your
back, well laid on, at the common
whipping post"
In 1857 n reward of fifteen pounds
(money) was offered for every Indian
enemy taken prisoner, and ten pounds
for every one killed, it being provid
ed III the latter case that 1.-THE scalp
of every such Indian killed or de.
stroyed shall be produced to the
Governor or CommaDder-in. Chief. "
Here, Mt any rate, was marked dis
crlmination III favor of the life of the
Indian, but it may be urged that the
prisoner could be utilized MS a slave.
However, the provision may well
raise the inquiry, whether the whites
or tho Indians first began scalping,
for we we'll know that the heheadine
and scalping of noxious animals is an
Old English custom, and the colonial
as well as the subsequent laws of Vir
ginia, are full of requirements for the
production of heads or scalps of
wolves, foxes, bears, hawks, etc. to
secure the rewards for killing these.
Furthermore. Capt. john Smith, the
father of Virginia, was noted be.
header of Turks, according to his
own account.
The anti Semetic prejudice was
strong in the colony, MS witness the
following act of 1853: "No negro.
mulatto or Indian although Chris
tians), or jew, Moor, Maholnetan or