Note 28 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Footnote 28: (return) Hurd, commenting on an act of 1649 declaring all imported male servants to be tithables, speaks as follows (230): "Tithables were persons assessed for a poll-tax, otherwise called the 'county levies.' At first, only free white persons were tithable. The law of 1645 provided for a tax on property and tithable persons. By 1648 property was released and taxes levied only on the tithables, at a specified poll-tax. Therefore by classing servants or slaves as tithables, the law attributes to them legal personality, or a membership in the social state inconsistent with the condition of a chattel or property."