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giving birth to a bastard whose father was a negro or a mulatto was stern and emphatic.^[1] As has been previously stated, if she were free she was required to pay fifteen pounds sterling, and if unable to do this, she was delivered into the hands of the church wardens of the parish and sold for a period of five years.^[2] If, however, she was not in the enjoyment of her freedom, but was a servant whose term had not expired, as soon as it came to an end she was disposed of by the wardens for the same length of time. Her child was appropriated by the parish until he or she was thirty years of age. In addition, the white mothers of negro bastards were frequently taken to the county seat and there publicly whipped by the sheriff. In some cases, the court directed that if such a woman after securing her freedom remained in the county, she was to be banished to the West Indies.^[3]

It is no ground for surprise that in the seventeenth century there were instances of criminal intimacy between white women and negroes. Many of the former had only recently arrived from England, and were, therefore, comparatively free from the race prejudice that was so likely

1. See an indictment of such a woman preserved in the Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 420. See also Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 322, Va. State Library.
2. Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 87.
3. Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 83, Va. State Library. The woman in this case was of English birth, Ann Wall by name. She was the mother of two bastards by a negro whom she claimed as her husband. She was brought before court and ordered to pay fifteen pounds sterling, in default of which she was to be sold as a servant for a term of five years. It appears that she was unable to secure the amount necessary, and in consequence was turned over to Mr. Peter Hobson, the court declaring at the same time that if, after she obtained her freedom, “she presumed to come into this county (Elizabeth City) she shall be banished to Island of Barbadoes.” Her bastards were also delivered to Hobson, to be held until they were thirty years of age.