In the act “Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother,” passed by the General Assembly in the session of December 1662, Virginia’s colonial government attempted to better define the conditions by which people were enslaved or free. This was a reversal of the usual common law presumption that the status of the child was determined by the father. The act enabled the reproduction of one’s own labor force.
WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any christian shall committ ffornication with a negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act.
Runaway Slaves (1642–1643) Court Ruling on Anthony Johnson and His Servant (1655) “A Report of a Comittee from an Assembly Concerning the freedome of Elizabeth Key” (1656) Phillip Mongom Accused of Stealing Hogs (1659–1660) “English running away with negroes” (1660–1661) “Women servants whose common imployment is working in the ground to be accompted tythable” (1662) “An act declaring that baptisme of slaves doth not exempt them from bondage” (1667) “Negro women not exempted from tax” (1668) “An act concerning Servants and Slaves” (1705) “Act directing the trial of Slaves, committing capital crimes; and for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurrections of them; and for the better government of Negros, Mulattos, and Indians, bond or free” (1723) Denying Free Blacks the Right to Vote (1724, 1735)
