towns, within

miles distance of any church, nor

within any district during divine service, and an hour preceding and an hour following the same; and the minister of each parish shall and is hereby authorized to act as a justice of the peace in enforcing the said regulation.

births, buri

13. And be it enacted, that every minis- Register of ter shall keep a register of births, burials, als, and mar and marriages of all negroes and mulattoes in his district.

day of

riages.

semble an

Synod to asnually, and

to form regu

14. And be it enacted, that the ministers of the several districts shall meet annually, on the in a synod of lations, the island to which they belong; and the said synod shall have for its president such person as the Bishop of London shall appoint for his commissary; and the said synod or general assembly is hereby authorized, by a majority of voices, to make regulations, which regulations shall be transmitted by the said president or commissary to the Bishop of London; and when returned by the Bishop of London approved of, then, and not before, the said regulations shall be held in force to bind the said clergy, their assistants, clerks, and schoolmasters only, and no other persons.

to the Bishop

15. And be it enacted, that the said pres- and to report ident shall collect matter in the said assem- of London. bly, and shall make a report of the state of religion and morals in the several parishes from whence the synod is deputed, and shall transmit the same, once in the year, in duplicate, through the governor and protector of negroes, to the Bishop of London

London to be

16. And be it enacted and declared, that Bishop of the Bishop of London for the time being patron of the shall be patron to all and every the said

cures;

cures in this act directed; and the said bishop is hereby required to provide for the due filling thereof, and is to receive, from the fund in this act provided for the due execution of this act, a sum not exceeding for each of the said ministers, for

his outfit and passage.

and to have power of sus

removing

ministers.

17. And be it enacted, that, on misbeha

pending and vior, and on complaint from the said synod, and on hearing the party accused in a plain and summary manner, it shall and may be lawful for the Bishop of London to suspend or to remove any minister from his cure, as his said offences shall appear to merit.

Schools for young negroes.

18. And be it enacted, that for every two ditsricts a school shall be established for young negroes to be taught three days in the week, and to be detained from their owner four hours in each day, the number not to be more or fewer than twenty males in each district, who shall be chosen, and vacancies filled, by the minister of the district; and the said minister shall pay to the owner of the said boy, and shall be allowed the same in his accounts at the synod, to the age of twelve years old, three-pence by the day, and for every boy from twelve years old to fifteen, five-pence by the day.

19. And it is enacted, that, if the president of the synod aforesaid shall certify to the protector of ne groes, that any boys in the said schools (provided that the number in no one year shall exceed one in the island of Jamaica, and one in two years in the islands of Barbadoes, Antigua, and Grenada, and one Extraordi- in four years in any of the other islands) to be encour- do show a remarkable aptitude for learning, aged. the said protector is hereby authorized and

nary abilities

directed to purchase the said boy at the best rate at which boys of that age and strength have been sold within the year; and the said negro so purchased shall be under the entire guardianship of the said protector of negroes, who shall send him to the Bishop of London for his further education in England, and may charge in his accounts for the expense of transporting him to England; and the Bishop of London shall provide for the education of such of the said negroes as he shall think proper subjects, until the age of twenty-four years, and shall order those who shall fall short of expectation after one year to be bound apprentice to some handicraft trade; and when his apprenticeship is finished, the Lord Mayor of London is hereby authorized and directed to receive the said negro from his master, and to transmit him to the island from which he came, in the West Indies, to be there as a free negro, subject, however, to the direction of the protector of negroes, relatively to his behavior and employment.

Dissenters;

20. And it is hereby enacted and pro- Negroes of vided, that any planter, or owner of negroes, not being of the Church of England, and not choosing to send his negroes to attend divine service in manner by this act directed, shall give, jointly or severally, as the case shall require, security to the protector of negroes that a competent minister of some Christian church or congregation shall be provided for the due instruction of the negroes, and for their performing divine service according to the description of the religion of the master or masters, in some church or house thereto allotted, in the manner and with the regulations in this act prescribed with regard to the exercise of religion according to the

their marriages, &c., to be registered.

Church of England: provided always, that the marriages of the said negroes belonging to Dissenters shall be celebrated only in the church of the said district, and that a register of the births shall be transmitted to the minister of the said

district.

Regulations

concerning

21. And whereas a state of matrimony, marriage. and the government of a family, is a principal means of forming men to a fitness for freedom, and to become good citizens: Be it enacted, that all negro men and women, above eighteen years of age for the man and sixteen for the woman, who have cohabited together for twelve months or upwards, or shall cohabit for the same time, and have a child or children, shall be deemed to all intents and purposes to be married, and either of the parties is authorized to require of the ministers of the district to be married in the face of the church.

the same.

of

Concerning 22. And be it enacted, that, from and af ter the all negro men in an healthy condition, and so reported to be, in case the same is denied, by a surgeon and by an inspector of negroes, and being twenty-one years old, or upwards, until fifty, and not being before married, shall, on requisition of the inspectors, be provided by their masters or overseers with a woman not having children living, and not exceeding the age of the man, nor, in any case, exceeding the age of twenty-five years; and such persons shall be married publicly in the face of the church.

Concerning

23. And be it enacted, that, if any negro the same. shall refuse a competent marriage tendered to him, and shall not demand another specifically, such as it may be in his master's power to provide,

the master or overseer shall be authorized to constrain him by an increase of work or a lessening of allow

ance.

&c., how

ished.

24. And be it enacted, that the minister Adultery, in each district shall have, with the assent to be punof the inspector, full power and authority to punish all acts of adultery, unlawful concubinage, and fornication, amongst negroes, on hearing and a summary process, by ordering a number of blows, not exceeding for each offence; and if any white person shall be proved, on information in the supreme court, to be exhibited by the protector of negroes, to have committed adultery with any negro woman, or to have corrupted any negro woman under sixteen years of age, he shall be fined in the sum of and shall be forever disabled from serving the office of overseer of negroes, or being attorney to any plantation.

marriage.

25. And be it enacted, that no slaves Concerning shall be compelled to do any work for their masters for [three] days after their marriage.

pregnant

26. And be it enacted, that no woman Concerning shall be obliged to field-work, or any other women. laborious work, for one month before her delivery, or for six weeks afterwards.

of husband

and chil

avoided.

27. And be it enacted, that no husband Separation and wife shall be sold separately, if original- and wife, ly belonging to the same master; nor shall dren, to be any children under sixteen be sold separately from their parents, or one parent, if one be living.

the same.

28. And be it enacted, that, if an husband Concerning and wife, which before their intermarriage belonged to different owners, shall be sold, they shall