LAWS REGARDING SLAVERY IN THE 17TH CENTURY

September 17th, 1630.

Hugh Davis to be soundly whipped, before an assembly of Negroes and others for abusing himself to the dishonor of God and shame of Christians, by defiling his body in lying with a negro; which fault he is to acknowledge next Sabbath day.


December 1662-ACT XII. Negro women children to serve according to the condition of the mother.

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 commit fornication with a negro man or woman, hee or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.


December 1662-ACT XII. Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother.

[As of December 1662, the child of an enslaved mother was also a slave for life. The statute was a dramatic departure from the English tradition in which a
child received his or her status from his or her father. Members of the General Assembly also hoped that an increased fine would discourage white men and
women from having sexual partners who were African or of African descent.]




April 1699-ACT VI. An act for the punishment of slaves for the first and second offence of Hog stealing.

Be it therefore enacted by the Governour, Councell and Burgesses of this present Generall Assembly, and the authority thereof, and it is hereby enacted, That for the first offence of hog stealing commited by a negro or slave he shall be carried before a justice of the peace of the county where the fact was commited before whome being convicted of the said offence by one evidence or by his owne confession he shall by order of the said justice receive on his bare back thirty nine
lashes well laid on, and for the second offence such negro or slave upon conviction before a court of record shall stand two hours in the pillory and have both his eares nailed thereto and at the expiration of the said two hours have his ears cutt off close by the nailes, any thing in the aforesaid act or in any other law to the
contrary in any wise notwithstanding.