paſſed. C. J. Parſons. Winchendon vs. Hatfield in error, iv Maſs. Reports, 130. This act was ſtill in force as late as June, 1807, when it was reproduced in the reviſed laws, and continued until a much later period to govern the deciſions of courts affecting the ſettlement of town paupers. An unſucceſsful attempt to repeal it, will be found duly noticed in a ſubſequent portion of theſe notes.
The Law of 1703, Chapter 4, prohibited Indian, Negro and Molatto ſervants or ſlaves, to be abroad after nine o'clock, etc.
The Law of 1705, Chapter 6, "for the better preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Iſſue, &c.;" puniſhes Negroes and Molattoes for improper intercourſe with whites, by ſelling them out of the Province. It alſo
demnification was not in the teſtator’s mind, cannot be proved from the will any more than it could be proved, in the firſt cafe above, that the testator did not know a fee ſimple would paſs a will without the word heirs; nor than, in the ſecond caſe, that the deviſe of a truſt, that might continue for ever, would convey a fee ſimple without the like words. I take it, therefore, that the executor of this will is, by implication, obliged to give bonds to the town treaſurer, and, in his refuſal, is a wrong doer; and I cannot think he ought to be allowed to take advantage of his own wrong, ſo much as to allege this want of an indemnification to evade an action of the caſe brought for the legacy by the negro himſelf.
But why may not the negro bring a ſpecial action of the caſe againſt the executor, ſetting forth the will, the deviſe of freedom and a legacy, and then the neceſſity of indemnification by the province law, and then a refuſal to indemnify, and, of conſequence, to ſet free and to pay the legacy?
Perhaps the negro is free at common law by the deviſe. Now, the province law ſeems to have been made only to oblige the maſter to maintain his manumitted ſlave, and not to declare a manumiſſion in the maſter's lifetime, or at his death, void. Should a maſter give a negro his freedom, under his hand and ſeal, without giving bond to the town, and ſhould afterwards repent and endeavor to recall the negro into ſervitude, would not that inſtrument be a ſufficient diſcharge againſt the maſter?" Adams' Works, i. 51, 55.
