military force was not only kept up, but at the breaking out of every
fire, a part of the militia were ordered out under arms to keep the
slaves in order!!

The report of nineteen articles, submitted to the town of Boston,
was finally embodied in a Negro Act of fifteen sections, of which the
15th was as follows:--

"That no Indian, negro or mullatto, upon the breaking out of fire
and the continuance thereof during the night season, shall depart
from his or her master's house, nor be found in the streets at or
near the place where the fire is, upon pain of being forthwith seized
and sent to the common gaol, and afterwards whipt, three days
following before dismist, &c."

From the _N. E. Courant,_ Nov. 1724, I take the following extract:--

"It is well known what loss the town of Boston sustained by fire not
long since, _when almost every night_ for a considerable time
together, some building or other and sometimes several in the same
night were either burned to the ground or some attempts made to do
it. It is likewise well known that those villanies were carried on by
Negro servants, the like whereof we never felt before from unruly
servants, nor ever heard of the like happening in any place attended
with the like circumstances."

Like causes produce like effects. Since the abolition of slavery in
Massachusetts, no one has felt alarmed at seeing "two or more colored
men lurking together" in Boston. Prior to the abolition of slavery in
the British West Indies, the militia were always called out under