nd the Carolinas, and bought slaves,
ostensibly for their own private use, but really to sell in the local
market. To prevent this, an act was passed imposing a tax of twenty
per centum on all such sales;[175] but there was a great outcry made
against this act. Twenty per centum of the gross amount on each slave,
paid by the person making the purchase, was a burden that planters
bore with ill grace. The question of the reduction of the tax to ten
per centum was vehemently agitated. The argument offered in favor of
the reduction was three-fold; viz., "very burthensom to the fair
purchaser," inimical "to the settlement and improvement of the lands"
in the colony, and a great hinderance to "the importation of slaves,
and thereby lessens the fund arising upon the duties upon
slaves."[176] The reduction was made in May, 1760; and, under
additional pressure, the additional duty on imported slaves to be
"paid by the buyer" was taken off altogether.[177] But in 1766 the
duty on imported slaves was revived;[178] and in 1772 an act was
passed reviving the "additional duty" on "imported slaves, and was
continued in force until the colonies threw off the British yoke in
1775."[179]

In all this epoch, from 1619 down to 1775, there is not a scrap of
history to prove that the colony of Virginia ever sought to prohibit
in any manner the importation of slaves. That she encouraged the
traffic, we have abundant testimony; and that she enriched herself by
it, no one can doubt.

During the period of which we have just made mention above, the slaves
in this colony had no political or military rights. As early as
1639,[180] the Assembly _excused_ them from owning or carrying arms;
and in 1705 they were barred by a special act from holding or
exercising "any office, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, or any
place of publick trust or power,"[181] in the colony. If found with a
"gun, sword, club, staff, or other weopon,"[182] they were turned over
to the constable, who was required to administer "twenty lashes on his
or her bare back." There was but one exception made. Where Negro and
Indian slaves lived on the border or the colony, frequently harassed
by predatory bands of hostile Indians, they could bear arms by first
getting written license from their master;[183] but even then they
were kept under surveillance by the whites.

Personal rights, we cannot see that the slaves had any. They were not
allowed to leave the plantation on which