History

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Introduction

In the 1600s, slaves were a form of property and they could be sold, inherited just like the other properties. These slaves were referred to as servitudes, who were chosen from specific race. With time, Africans were the considered the chosen race to slavery, with a great difficulty in differentiating what different gender were ought to do. Virginia was among the first states to acknowledge the law of slavery by 1661.

The happenings and slavery law passed in Virginia were aimed at maintaining the slaves by passing heavy penalties on them so that they could not escape. The slaves from Africa could work on the Europeans farm due to their extensive knowledge on rice. Upon realizing that the labor force was not enough, Virginia was among the first states to introduce slavery laws that were aimed at retaining the slaves they initially had due to their low numbers and high rate of pay for the slave from West Africa.

Virginia’s first slavery law concerned the women, who were sent to serve two years of slavery in the churches if they gave birth to children belonging to their masters. This was termed as fornication, but it was actually meant to retain the slaves. The second slavery law was “Negro” children, of which the situation that they were to be kept in entirely depended on their mothers.

In 1662, another law was passed to protect the children who were born of free white mother and a “Negro” father, however, the child was bound to work for thirty years. This was the birthright act. In 1691, Virginia passed another law that was literally aimed at suppressing the existing slaves due to their deficiency.

Conclusion

Several laws were passed in the 1600s by the Virginia state concerning the slaves, after realizing their deficiency. Their aim was to suppress the existing slaves and put conditions that were hard for them so that they could not escape. This state was among the first to set such by-laws, which other...