Slave Codes In The Seventeenth Century

The Virginia Slave Codes date all the way to early 1600s. During the 17th century, indentured servants, who decided to work for an affirmed amount of time in replace for their means of access to the "New World", were a handy resource of manual labor for the American colonies. Both blacks and whites served under the system (Goldenburg 1). White servants, after working out their time of agreement, often progressed to appreciated places in the society. On the other hand, their black correspondents, who totaled to about 2,000 in Virginia in 1670, were rarely given the same treatment. By the middle of the century, they were usually regarded as servants for life. In the late 1650s, laws referring to slaves started to

Slaves were treated like dangerous animals that were being loaded on a ship ready to be sent to a zoo. From the passage

After the slaves surrendered, the remaining members of the slaves that rebelled were hung for their crimes. These slaves were made an example to all other slaves, making them not even want to attempt to rebel in the future. This rebellion led to much harsher slave codes that were enforced in the colony. It also restricted the slaves so much that it meant that they could not go anywhere without their owners permission at any time. “The Negro Act of 1740 was passed which prohibited enslaved people from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning money they, rather than their owners, could retain or learning to read.” (The Black Past.org)

knowledge would lead slaves to question the right of whites to keep slaves. Lastly, by keeping

During 1619 where slavery fist appeared in Virginia, a Dutch warship brought more than twenty African men and women that were obtained as slaves in the Caribbean. There were many laws that Virginia created restricting freedom of African slaves. For example, Virginia passed a law that restrained Africans from carrying weapons (Jones, 82). It seemed as if Virginia created laws year after year restricting African men and/or women into doing/not doing particular things. During 1643, a law had passed that taxed productive field hands of African American women but not white women. Again, in Virginia, planters passed a set of laws that improved differences between slaves working for a specific period and they consigned to

Former slaves were not allowed any weapons or access to the town, among other things. The codes stretched the law enough so that African-Americans were even forced to be “in the service of some white person or former owner”, and could not do many things without their express permission. (Document B) These laws were put into place by white men, dependent on the African-American’s continued labor for their farms and plantations to thrive. As the slave trade had greatly enhanced the economy of the South, white landowners were not eager to give up the majority of their workforce. Although legally, former slaves were considered free, the black codes forced them to stay in place and obey unfair laws. Without the word slavery ever mentioned, the black codes represented much of the South’s attitude towards African-Americans, destroying their personal rights as

Prosecuting them was hard to do, due to the fact that laws were enacted to prevent slaves from testifying against their master. This treatment continued into the 1900s with the lynching and tree hangings of many blacks. However, masters who treated their slaves cruelly were legally punished In Latin America; slaves were able to testify against their owners. In contrast, a slave having a Sunday of was considered as an incentive from the owner, to encourage efficiency under the U.S. English Common Law, and those laws treated slaves drastically different. They viewed slavery as a business only. They did not care about their livelihood, nor did they consider slaves as people. They based the price of each slave on gender and age; considered them as property, and sold them like real estate. The states enacted laws for contracts, which protected both the buyers and owners in the initial purchase.

Slaves were used to do chores around the house, watch children, as well as clean and cook. At this time most of the slaves weren’t native rather they were from West Africa. Since the slaves were from a different part of the world and had a much different lifestyle (culture) than the Americans did, white people always made sure to keep a close eye on the slaves, almost as if they were afraid of their own black slaves, matter of fact they probably were. The whites seemed to be so afraid of them that they put bans on West African cultural practices, such as night burials, group gatherings, and the purchase of

Even with emancipation settled, some plantation owners still managed to coax their former slaves into dangerous contracts, binding them as surely as slavery had

First and foremost slave’s were beaten for anything they did. If slave’s disrespecting the rules in any way that the owner

Slaves faced the possibility of being hired out by their masters as well as being sold. Hired slaves frequently worked in manufacturing, construction, mining, and domestic service, often labored side by side with free persons. Bond and free

Slavery was not only a practice of owning a person, but controlling and ruling over every action that they take in order to benefit at their expense. These black men, women, and children did not have the same rights as white Americans living among them. In fact, they had no rights at all and no freedoms. They

Slave by definition is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. That about sums up what slavery really is in our mind and is pretty much the definition that we all picture when we think about slaves and slavery. But this is not what slavery truly was within the antebellum time period. Most of the slaves had a whole different outlook on the way they viewed, and acted and while living in their unfortunate circumstances. This is one of the few things that will be discussed further on within this paper. The main concept of this paper will be to discuss slavery in three sections; these sections will be discussing the types of people who were enslaved, and the nature of their bondage in the first section. The

They could not rebel without repercussions and could not betray or leave their owner. They had free labor that could not go anywhere; slavery was a huge benefit and was like a dream for a plantation owner. They were essential to production and cultivation of crops and plantations. By 1700, slavery was existent in all of the colonies. The House of Burgesses realized that slaves were an extremely important part of the labor force and therefore, to the economy. A new slave code was enacted in 1705 stating that slaves were property of their owners and to the white community. Slaves were the legal responsibility of the master and if they started to rebel it was the master’s obligation to keep them in line.

Instead, they were classed as fugitives. In this way, slaves were left with no way to become free. Their only option was to work on the plantations for life.