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Whereas by certain Clause in an Act, intitled, "An Act for the governing of Negroes," dated the eighth day of August in the year of our Lord God, One thousand six hundred eighty and eight, It is enacted, "That no person of the Hebrew nation residing in any Sea-port town of this Island, shall keep or emply any Negro or other Slave, be he Man or Boy, for any use or service whatsoever, more than one Negro or other Slave, Man or Boy, to be allowed to each of the persons of the said Nation, except such as are denizened by His Majesty's Letters Patents, and not otherwise; who are to keep no more than for their own use, shall be approved by the Governor, Council and Assembly: And if any Negro, Man, or Boy, more than is before allowed by this Act, shall be found three months after publication hereof, in the custody, possession, or use of any of the persons aforesaid, then every such person or persons, shall forfeit such Negro or other Slave; one moiety of the the value thereof to whomsoever shall inform, and the other moiety to His Majesty, to the uses in this Act appointed;" as by the said Clause in the said Act may appear: But forasmuch as the said Nation inhabiting here, are become considerable Traders, and in order to carry on the same to advantage, as well of the Public as of themselves, are obliged to employ a greater number of Negroes and Slave, then were at the time of making the said Law thought necessary;
(Clause I.) Be it therefore enacted and it is hereby enacted by His Excellency, Sir Bevill Granville, Knight, Her Majesty's Captain General, and Governor in chief of this Island the Honourable the Members of Her Majesty's Council, and the General Assembly, and by the Authority of the same, That the said Clause be, as it is hereby repealed, annulled and declared void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever: And that it shall be lawful for every person of the said Nation to employ as many Negroes and other Slaves, as they might legally have done, if no such Clause had never been in force; any thing in the said Clause, Act, or any other Clause, or Act, Custom, or Usage to the contrary, in any wise notwithstanding.
Passed September 3d, 1706
{Copy in in Acts of Assembly, passed in the Island of Barbadoes, From 1648, to 1718. John Baskett (1732), p.118-126]
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