TYPE	YEAR	LAWS/CODES	DESCRIPTION
Terms of bondage	1652	Statute	It forbade bondage of more than ten years for both blacks and whites. Law was not strictly enforced.
Slavery recognized	1700	Statute	Statutory recognition was given to slavery.
Alcohol	1708	Statute	Housekeepers were forbidden to serve Indians and blacks hard liquor.
Shipping	1712	Statute	Shipmasters were ordered to report to the governor the names and number of passengers landed in the colony. They also could not carry away from Rhode Island any passenger without the governor's permission. Fine: 500 pounds. Import duty of three pounds per black and 40 shillings per Indian.
Shipping	1714	Statute	No boatman was to carry an enslaved person on his ferry without a certificate from the person's master.
Shipping	1715	Statute	If a shipmaster failed to list all of the enslaved blacks on board, he was fined six pounds per slave above the number listed. If an enslaved person remained in Rhode Island less than six months, the duty was returned. The duty on enslaved persons was repealed in 1732 by the English Board of Trade.
Manumission	1728	Statute	If a master freed an enslaved person, he had to deposit 100 pounds security in the event that the new freedman became a burden to the community.
Kidnapping	1746	Statute	Law was passed against privateers, who captured free blacks in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and sold them in Rhode Island. If caught, they repaid the purchaser the cost of the "slave."
Trade	1751	Statute	Statute prohibited trade with a servant or an enslaved person to prevent theft.
Runaways/Shipping	1757	Statute	To prevent shipmasters from carrying runaways out of the colony, shipmasters were fined 500 pounds if a black was found on board their ships.
Manumission	1774	Statute	Any enslaved black brought into the colony after 1774 was freed. However, if a master had a black in another colony and brought that black into Rhode Island, he kept the black. If the master left the colony, he had to take the black and his/her children with him.