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The Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 stated that people who were not Christians, or were black, mixed-race, or Native Americans would be classified as slaves (i.e., treated like personal property or chattel), and it was made illegal for white people to marry people of color. [39]
They were still considered to be indentured servants, like the approximately 4000 white indentured people, since a slave law was not passed in the colony until 1661. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] At the turn of the century, an increase in the Atlantic slave trade enabled planters to purchase enslaved labor, in lieu of bonded labor (indentured servants and ...
The enactment of the Slave Codes is considered to be the consolidation of slavery in Virginia, and served as the foundation of Virginia's slave legislation. [1] All servants from non-Christian lands became slaves. [2] There were forty one parts of this code each defining a different part and law surrounding the slavery in Virginia.
Beginning in the Virginia royal colony in 1662, colonial governments incorporated the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem into the laws of slavery, ruling that the children born in the colonies took the place or status of their mothers; therefore, children of enslaved mothers were born into slavery as chattel, regardless of the status of ...
Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 - Guaranteed rights of slaveholders to retrieve escaped slaves. An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves 1807 - legally prohibited the international slave trade . Missouri Compromise (1820) - prohibited slavery north of parallel 36°30′ north , with the exception of Missouri , but allowed its continuation in the ...
Many cities in the slave-states required slave tags, small copper badges that enslaved people wore, to show that they were allowed to move about. [ 4 ] Marriage restrictions : Most places restricted the marriage rights of enslaved people, ostensibly to prevent them from trying to change masters by marrying into a family on another plantation. [ 5 ]
There were no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history, but, in 1640, a Virginia court sentenced John Punch, an African, to life in servitude after he attempted to flee his service. [121] The two whites with whom he fled were sentenced only to an additional year of their indenture, and three years' service to the colony. [122]
The slave population made up around 25 percent of the general population. This created an imbalance in both the age and gender demographic as older slaves were seldom sold, and the number of male to female slaves was almost 2 to 1. The annual amount of new slaves imported in a year was between 2,000 and 4,000. [6]