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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]
Slaves brought their African knowledge which aided the development of rice and indigo growing. The diversifying of agriculture was key to avoid economic slumps that could have resulted from the fluctuating tobacco prices. The slaves also completed the trading process known as Triangle trade. The south and Chesapeake's point of the triangle ...
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.
A 1723 law stated that slaves may not "be set free upon any pretence whatsoever, except for some meritorious services to be adjudged and allowed by the governor and council". [ 89 ] [ 90 ] The new government of Virginia repealed the laws in 1782 and declared freedom for slaves who had fought for the colonies during the American Revolutionary ...
Slaves could be held if they were captives of war, if they sold themselves into slavery, were purchased from elsewhere, or if they were sentenced to slavery by the governing authority. [67] The Body of Liberties used the word "strangers" to refer to people bought and sold as slaves, as they were generally not native born English subjects.
For this reason, some historians consider Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies," [4] and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." [ 2 ] Some historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony, [ 5 ] and a key ...
Numerous slaveholders in the Chesapeake Bay area freed their slaves, often in their wills (like Quaker John Pleasants) or deeds, and noted principles of equality and Revolutionary ideals as reason for their decisions. The number of free African Americans increased in the Upper South from less than one percent before the Revolution, to 10 ...
Punishment and killing of slaves: Slave codes regulated how slaves could be punished, usually going so far as to apply no penalty for accidentally killing a slave while punishing them. [9] Later laws began to apply restrictions on this, but slave-owners were still rarely punished for killing their slaves. [ 10 ]