"Sam": or The history of mystery./ By C. W. Webber.

"SAM:' OR, THE HISTORY OF MIYSTERY.
Among the ten acts of the late Virginia revision rejected
by the king, was one (1751)' concerning servants and slaves,'
a consolidation and re-enactment of all the old statutes on
that subject, the substance of which has been given in former
chapters. It appears from the address, already quoted, of the
Assembly to the king (1752) on the subject of this veto, to
have been a standing instruction to the governor not to consent to the re-enactment of any law once rejected by the king,
without express leave first obtained upon representation of
the reasons and necessity for it. Such a representation was
accordingly made by the Assembly as to eight of the ten rejected laws. The act concerning servants and slaves was not
of this number (1753), yet we find it re-enacted, within a year
after, in the very same words. Why the royal assent had been
refused does not appear. It could hardly have been from any
scruples on the subject of slavery (1750); for among the acts
expressly approved was one'for the better government of
Indians, negroes and mulattoes,' which provided that the
death of a slave under extremity of correction should not be
esteemed murder, unless it were proved by the oath of at
least one'lawful and credible witness' that the slave was
willfully and maliciously killed; persons indicted for the
murder of a slave, and found guilty of manslaughter only,
to' incur no forfeiture or punishment.' Slaves set free without leave from the governor and council, might be sold at
public auction by the churchwardens of any parish in which
such freed slave might reside for the space of a month. The
same statute also continued the authority formerly given to
the county courts to'dismember' disorderly slaves' notoriously guilty of going abroad in the night, or running away
and lying out,' and not to be reclaimed by the common
methods-an authority very much abused, if we may judge
by a subsequent statute, which declares this dismembering
' to be often disproportioned to the offense, and contrary to
the principles of humanity,' and prohibits the castration of
slaves except on conviction of an attempt to ravish a white
woman. (1769.)
The negroes imported from the African coast, whose descendants now constitute a sixth part of the population of the
United States, were not by any means of one nation, language,
or race. A single slave ship often brought to America a
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