and, "in cases in which there was no express law established, to be governed by the Divine word.". The freemen of the colony, or those having the elective franchise, were to be such as had been received members of the several towns, by a majority of the inhabitants.

In June, of the same year, a constitution of government was adopted by the settlers at New Haven.' The Scriptures were received as having the authority of law in the absence of legislation. Only members of the churches within the jurisdiction, could be freemen or electors. At Hartford, in April of the same year, the first law was passed, being a declaration or bill of rights, which is in nearly the same words as the preamble and first article of the Massachusetts Fundamentals of 1641. This bill of rights is repeated in the commencement of every revision. of the colony laws."

1650.-By order of the General Court of Hartford, &c., a digest of the statutes was "copied by the Secretary into the book of public records," which is frequently referred to in later statutes as the code of 1650.1

In this code under the title Indians, the lawfulness of the slavery of both Indians and negroes is recognized by the general court, adopting in terms a "conclusion" of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, dated Sept. 5, 1646. (1 Records, 531.) This is not found in the revised

The New Ha

' Printed with the code of 1650, by Andrus & Judd, 1833, 18mo. ven colonists came directly from England in the year 1638; they had no patent from the council in Plymouth, in England, for New England. The territory of Connecticut had been granted by a patent then held by the Lord Say and Seale, and others.

2 It is said that about the year 1750, the Hebrew lex talionis was applied under this enactment, in the case of a negro slave for the mutilation of his master's son. Peter's Hist. Conn., p. 83.

The reference to the word of God is thus modified, "or in case of the defects of a law in any particular case, by some clear and plain rule of the word of God, in which the whole court shall concur."

Col. Records of Conn., vol. I., p. 509, 563. See abstract in 1 Hildr. 371. 1643, May.-A confederacy to be known as the United Colonies of New England was entered into at Boston by delegates from Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, and the General Court of Massachusetts. 2 Hazard, 1-6. Among the articles of agreements, the eighth is as follows:

[a] "It is also agreed that the commissioners for this confederation, hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, as they may have commission or opportunity, do endeavor to frame and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil nature, wherein all the plantations are interested, for preserving peace among themselves, and preventing as much as may be, all occasions of war, or differ

laws of 1715, which contain many provisions "for the well ordering of the Indians."

ences with others, as about free and speedy passage of justice in each jurisdiction to all the confederates equally, as to their own, receiving those that remove from one plantation to another without due certificates, how all the jurisdictions may carry it towards the Indians, that they neither grow insolent nor be injured without due satisfaction, lest war break in upon the confederates through miscarriages. [b.] It is also agreed that if any servant run away from his master into any of these confederate jurisdictions, that in such case, upon certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof, the said servant shall be delivered either to his master or any other that pursues and brings such certificate or proof. [c.] And that upon the escape of any prisoner or fugitive for any criminal cause, whether breaking prison or getting from the officer, or otherwise escaping, upon the certificate of two magistrates of the jurisdiction out of which the escaped made, that he was a prisoner or such offender at the time of the escape, the magistrate or some of them, where for the present the said prisoner or fugitive abideth, shall forthwith grant such warrant as the case will bear for the apprehending of any such person and the delivery of him into the hand of the officer or other person who pursueth him; and if there be help required for the safe returning of any such offender, then it shall be granted unto him that craves it, he paying the charges thereof."

The same provisions are incorporated into the seventh article of the confederation, renewed in 1672. (2 Haz. p. 523.) The preliminary agreement [a] is however differently worded. "It is also agreed that the commissioners for this confederation hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, as they may have commission or opportunity, may consult of and propose to the several general courts, to be by them allowed and established, such orders in general cases," &c., the rest as in the article of 1643.

In certain instructions given by the commissioners, 5th Sept., 1646, (2 Hazard, p. 63,) after reciting the conduct of certain Indians, is said "it was therefore concluded, that in such cases the magistrates of any of the jurisdictions, might at the plaintiff's charge, send some convenient strength of English, and, according to the nature and value of the offence and damage, seize and bring away any of that plantation of Indians that shall entertain, protect, or rescue the offender, though it should be in another's jurisdiction, when, through distance of place, counsel or direction cannot be had, after notice and due warning given them as abettors, or at least accessory unto the injury and damage done to the English, only women and children to be sparingly seized, unless known to be some way guilty. And because it will be chargeable keeping Indians in prison, and if they should escape, they are like to prove more insolent and dangerous after, it was thought fit that, upon such seisure, the delinquent or satisfaction be again demanded of the sagamore or plantation of Indians guilty or accessory as before, and if it be denied, that then the magistrates of the jurisdiction deliver up the Indians seized to the party or parties endamaged, either to serve or to be shipped out and exchanged for negroes as the cause will justly bear."

In a correspondence, 2 Hazard, pp. 57, 69, between Governor Kieft of New Netherlands and the Commissioners for the United N. E. Colonies, 1646, the latter claim, "an Indian captive, liable to publicke punishment, fled from her master at Harford, is entertained in your house at Harford, and though required by the magistrate is under the hands of your agent there denyed, and we heare she is either marryed or abused by one of your men; such a servant is parte of her master's estate, and a more considerable part than a beast: our children will not longe be secure if this be suffered." The answer of Kieft is," Soe far as concernes the Barbarian handmaide, although it be apprehended by some that she is no slave, but a free woman, because she was neither taken in war nor bought with price, but was in former time placed with me by her parents for education, &c."

In the inter-colonial treaty of Sept. 19, 1650, it is agreed that the same way and course shall be observed betwixt the English United Colonies and the Dutch, within the province of New Netherlands, as, according to the eighth article of confederation (of the N. E. Col.,) is in that case provided. 2 Hazard, 172.

Under the title Masters, Servants, Sojourners, servants are forbidden, under penalty, to trade without permission of master, and provision is made for their recapture by public authority if running away; refractory servants are to be punished by the extension of their terms. 1 Records, 539, among the Capital Laws, 10, "If any man stealeth a man or mankind he shall be put to death, Exodus 21, 26." 1 Records, 77. The preamble is the same as in the Massachusetts Fundamentals.

1660, May 17. At a court held at Hartford-"It is ordered by this court, that neither Indian nor negro servants shall be required to traine, watch or ward in this Colonie." 1 Records, 349.

1662. The several colonies of Hartford, &c., and of New Haven, became united under one government, under the Charter for Connecticut, granted by Charles II.'

1677, May 10. At a court of Election held at Hartford.— This court, for the prevention of those Indians running away that are disposed in service by the Authority, that are of the enemie and have submitted to mercy, such Indians, if they be taken, it shall be in the power of his master to dispose of him as a captive by transportation out of the country," &c. 2 Records, 308.

1708. An act to prevent receiving goods from slaves, &c., (Rev. L. of 1715, p. 135.) An act for punishing, &c.-" Whereas negro and mulatto servants and slaves are very apt to be turbulent, and often quarrell with white people," &c., enacts that any such, disturbing the peace and offering to strike any white person, shall, on conviction, be punished with whipping, &c. (Rev. L. 1715, p. 138.)

1711. An act relating to slaves, and such in particular as

'By this the freemen of the colony were authorized to choose new associates, a governor and legislative assembly. The grant of legislative power is-" to ordain and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, &c., not contrary to the laws of this realm of England." It is provided that "all and every the subjects of us, our heirs or successors, which shall go to inhabit within the said colony, and every of their children which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects, within any of the dominions of us, our heirs and successors, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever, as if they and every of them were born within the realm of England." 1 Trumbull, 249; 2 Records.

shall happen to become servants for time, enacts "that all slaves set at liberty by their owners, and all negro, mulatto, and Spanish Indians, who are servants to masters for time, in case they shall come to want after they shall be so set at liberty or the time of their service be expired "—they shall be relieved at the cost of their masters. Rev. L. 1715, p. 164.

1715, the date of a revision of the Laws: in which, an act concerning arrests for debt: that the debtor, "if no estate appear, he shall satisfy the debt by service, if the creditor shall require it, in which case he shall not be disposed in service to any but of the English nation," p. 5 of Rev. continued in the later revisions.1

An act relating to freemen. Persons desiring to become "freemen of this corporation," having a certificate of the selectmen that they are persons of quiet and peaceable behavior and civil conversation, of the age of twenty-one years, and freeholders to be admitted on taking the oaths, p. 40 of Rev.

-An act to prevent the running away of Indian and negro servants, p. 87 of Rev.

An act prohibiting the importation or bringing into this colony any Indian servants or slaves. "Whereas divers conspiracies, outrages, barbarities, murders, burglaries, thefts and other notorious crimes, at sundry times, and especially of late, have been perpetrated by Indians and other slaves, within several of his Majesties plantations in America, being of a malicious and revengeful spirit, rude and insolent in their behaviour and very ungovernable; the over great number of which, considering the different circumstances of this colony from the plantations in the islands, and our having considerable numbers of the Indians, natives of the country, within and about us, may be of pernicious consequence to his Majesties subjects and interests here; unless speedily remedied,"-enacts "all Indians brought into this colony, to be disposed of or sold here, to be forfeited to the treasury of the colony unless the importers give security to re-export," p. 209 of Rev.

'Mr. Hildreth, 1 Hist. U. S. 372, says this provision is in the code of 1650.

Under the title Masters, Servants, Sojourners, servants are forbidden, under penalty, to trade without permission of master, and provision is made for their recapture by public authority if running away; refractory servants are to be punished by the extension of their terms. 1 Records, 539, among the Capital Laws, 10, "If any man stealeth a man or mankind he shall be put to death, Exodus 21, 26." 1 Records, 77. The preamble

is the same as in the Massachusetts Fundamentals.

1660, May 17. At a court held at Hartford-"It is ordered by this court, that neither Indian nor negro servants shall be required to traine, watch or ward in this Colonie." 1 Records, 349.

1662. The several colonies of Hartford, &c., and of New Haven, became united under one government, under the Charter for Connecticut, granted by Charles II.1

1677, May 10. At a court of Election held at Hartford.— "This court, for the prevention of those Indians running away that are disposed in service by the Authority, that are of the enemie and have submitted to mercy, such Indians, if they be taken, it shall be in the power of his master to dispose of him as a captive by transportation out of the country," &c. 2 Records, 308.

1708. An act to prevent receiving goods from slaves, &c., (Rev. L. of 1715, p. 135.) An act for punishing, &c.—" Whereas negro and mulatto servants and slaves are very apt to be turbulent, and often quarrell with white people," &c., enacts that any such, disturbing the peace and offering to strike any white person, shall, on conviction, be punished with whipping, &c. (Rev. L. 1715, p. 138.)

1711. An act relating to slaves, and such in particular as

By this the freemen of the colony were authorized to choose new associates, a governor and legislative assembly. The grant of legislative power is-"to ordain and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable laws, &c., not contrary to the laws of this realm of England." It is provided that "all and every the subjects of us, our heirs or successors, which shall go to inhabit within the said colony, and every of their children which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects, within any of the dominions of us, our heirs and successors, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever, as if they and every of them were born within the realm of England." 1 Trumbull, 249; 2 Records.