theory and practice of that period on this ſubject, both of which deſerve to be had in everlaſting remembrance. We ſhall make no apology for noticing them in this place, although their connection with the hiſtory of ſlavery in Maſſachu{{ls}etts is very remote.
Among the "Acts and Orders made at the Generall Court of Election held at Warwicke this 18th day of May, anno 1652," "The Commiſſioners of Providence and Warwicke being lawfully mett and ſett," on the ſecond day of their ſeſſion (19th May, 1652), enacted and ordered as follows, viz.:
"Whereas, there is a common courſe practiſed among Engliſhmen to buy negers, to that end they may have them for ſervice or ſlaves for ever; for the preventinge of ſuch practices among us, let it be ordered, that no blacke mankind or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwiſe, to ſerve any man or his aſſighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they come to bee twentiefour yeares of age, if they bee taken in under fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liberties of this Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten yeares to ſett them free, as is the manner with the Engliſh ſervants. And that man that will not let them goe free, or ſhall ſell them away elſewhere, to that end that they may be enſlaved to others for a long time, hee or they ſhall forfeit to the Collonie forty pounds." R. I. Records, i., 248.
This noble act ſtands out in ſolitary grandeur in the middle of the ſeventeenth century, the firſt legislative enactment in the hiſtory of this continent, if not of the world, for the ſuppreſſion of involuntary ſervitude. But, unhappily, it was not enforced, even
