among the inhabitants in
general, in order therefore to promote the same good designs
in this government and that such as purchase slaves may
contribute some equitable proportion of the public
burdens."[480]

How an impost-tax upon imported slaves would be "beneficial in the
introduction of sober industrious foreigners," is not easily
perceived; and how it would promote "a spirit of industry among the
inhabitants in general," is a problem most difficult of solution. But
these were the lofty reasons that inspired the General Court to seek
to fill the coffers of the Province with money drawn from the
slave-lottery, where human beings were raffled off to the highest
bidders in the colony. The cautious language in which the Act was
couched indicated the sensitive state of the public conscience on
slavery at that time. They were afraid to tell the truth. They did not
dare to say to the people: We propose to repair the streets of your
towns, the public roads, and lighten the burden of taxation, by saying
to men-stealers, we will allow you to sell your cargoes of slaves into
this colony provided you share the spoils of your superlative crime!
No, they had to tell the people that the introduction of Negro slaves,
upon whom there was a tax, would entice sober and industrious white
people to come among them, and would quicken the entire Province with
a spirit of thrift never before witnessed!

In 1760 the Negro was ruled out of the militia establishment upon a
condition. The law provided against the enlistment of any "_young man
under the age of twenty-one years, or any slaves who are so for terms
of life, or apprentices_," without leave of their masters. This was
the mildest prohibition against the entrance of the slave into the
militia service in any of the colonies. There is nothing said about
the employment of the free Negroes in this service; and it is fair to
suppose, in view of the mild character of the laws, that they were not
excluded. In settlements where the German and Quaker elements
predominated, the Negro found that his "lines had fallen unto him in
pleasant places, and that he had a goodly heritage." In the coast
towns, and in the great centres of population, the white people were
of a poorer class. Many were adventurers, cruel and unscrupulous in
their methods. The speed with which the people sought to obtain a
competency wore the finer edges of their feeling to the coarse grain
of selfishn