African Americans in Jamestown

Roots of the contemporary racial divide in America are found as early as the Jamestown settlement. Few English women live at the fledgling colony, so Englishmen seek sexual relations with African women. When mixed race children are inevitably born, Virginia lawmakers scramble to pass laws blocking these children from inheriting their English fathers' property. Joseph Miller, Jennifer Morgan, and Stephanie Smallwood assert that these laws, designed to protect the colony's business interests, set a foundation for the institution of slavery in the New World.