#FREEDOME CODES CODE#
#FREEDOME CODES SERIES#
#FREEDOME CODES FREE#
#FREEDOME CODES WINDOWS#

This code reenacted and strengthened a number of earlier slave laws, added further restrictions and harsher punishments, and permanently drew the color line that placed blacks at the bottom of Virginia society. The piecemeal establishment of slavery in these separate laws culminated in 1705 in a comprehensive slave code in Virginia. In large part, the slave codes were motivated by the growth of the black population and whites’ fears of slave uprisings. In 1663, blacks already made up 14 percent of York’s population by 1701, they counted for 31 percent of the county’s inhabitants. In certain coastal counties, such as York, the demographic picture was even more threatening. Whereas Africans were only 2 percent of the total population of Virginia in 1648, they were 15 percent in 1708. The greater the proportion of black slaves in the overall Virginia population, the more restrictive and oppressive the laws became. In general, these laws were designed to protect planters’ slave property and to protect the order and stability of white society from an “alien and savage race.” Between 16, nearly twenty separate laws were passed limiting, defining, and prescribing the rights, status, and treatment of blacks.

#FREEDOME CODES FREE#

Although manumissions still occurred and some free blacks managed to remain in the colony, the primary status for African Americans in Virginia was that of chattel.Īlthough who was to be a slave in Virginia had now been defined, it had yet to be determined precisely what being a slave meant on a daily basis for Africans and their descendants. In 1691, colonial leaders provided a negative incentive to masters wishing to free their slaves by declaring that anyone who set free any “negro or mulatto” would be required to pay the costs of transporting the freedmen out of the colony within six months. The 1667 law built on the earlier one to define who would be a slave and was clarified in 1670 and again in 1682, when the Assembly declared that any non-Christian brought into the colony, either by land or by sea, would be a slave for life, even if he or she later converted. Not only did the court deny Fernando’s appeal, but also that same year the General Assembly took another step toward more clearly defining blacks’ status, by declaring “that the conferring of baptisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedome.” Planters felt that if baptism led to freedom, they would be without any assurance that they could retain their slave property. In 1667, a slave named Fernando failed in a similar suit when he contended that he ought to be freed because he was a Christian and had lived in England for several years. In 1655, mulatto Elizabeth Key had brought a successful suit for her freedom, using as her main argument the fact that she had been baptized.

#FREEDOME CODES WINDOWS#

Africans had two available windows through which they could obtain freedom-conversion to Christianity and manumission (formal emancipation). Virginia Slave Codes (Mar., 1661-1705) Slave Codes, Virginia (Mar., 1661-1705) Laws, acts, and legal history Mar., 1661-1705: Virginia Slave Codes Social issues and reform Mar., 1661-1705: Virginia Slave Codes American Colonies Mar., 1661-1705: Virginia Slave Codes Slavery Virginia Slavery Virginia slave codes Virginia slaveryĭespite the extent to which the 1661 law narrowed the options for defining Africans’ status, this act did not in itself establish slavery as permanent and inescapable. By reversing this legal concept, perpetuation of enslavement for blacks was ensured for their children, whether of black or white ancestry.

#FREEDOME CODES SERIES#

In March, 1661, the Virginia General Assembly declared that “all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.” Enacted to alleviate confusion about the status of children with English fathers and African mothers, this law was the first in a series of laws recognizing perpetual slavery in Virginia and equating “freedom” with “white” and “enslaved” with “black.” This law is especially indicative of the hardening of race relations in mid-seventeenth century Virginia society, as status in the patriarchal society of England traditionally was inherited from the father.

Based on the laws regulating white indentured servitude, the laws created vast differences between the status of black and white forced laborers, instituting a de jure, rather than merely de facto, system of racial segregation. The first laws recognizing and institutionalizing slavery in Virginia were passed by the General Assembly.

Freedome codes