Slavery and Racism in Seventeenth-Century Virginia Essay Example

During the 17th century, the English came to America seeking religious freedom that they didn't have the right to in Britain. Because the profitability of the Virginia colony relied on tobacco and Caribbean sugar, the English enslaved Africans to fulfill their labor needs. Due to European Christian belief that slavery is sanctioned in the Bible, enslavement of Africans quickly began to rise across America and the Carribean. Thus, the English began passing laws categorizing race, defining who can be enslaved, and their status within society. These laws were passed to separate enslaved Africans from the English and dehumanize them often resulting in death, discrimination, and lack of rights. 

The English quickly began to pass laws that defined race and sanctioned racism and killing. The passage of the January 1639 Act X and the March 1642 Act I created a legal distinction between black women/men from the English. The defining of race led to the word negro commonly being used to describe and distinct black people from white people. Slaves were referred to as negro, signifying that these people were only defined by their color and further dehumanized based on their race. Second, the passage of the October 1669 Act I legalized the killing of slaves. Colonial leaders decided that corporal punishment was the only way in which a master could correct a slave since his or her time of service could not be extended. This law represents the loss of legal protection for a slave's life in Virginia. It also was the first of several laws passed during the last thirty years of the seventeenth century that reduced the personal rights of black men and women (Hening). Slaves were whipped, beaten, and killed by their slave masters to instill fear and obedience. Oftentimes, the inhumane and traumatic treatment of slaves inspired the slaves to assert themselves and rebel. These rebellions were rarely successful, and the captured slaves were executed and their deceased bodies were left to rot outdoors as a warning to others. The passage of the September 1672-ACT VIII suppressed the rebellious activities of slaves. “in case any negroes, mulattoes or other slaves or slaves lying out as aforesaid shall resist, runaway, or refuse to deliver and surrender him or themselves to any person or persons that shall be by lawfull authority employed to apprehend and take such negroes, mulattoes or other slaves that in such cases it shall and may be lawfull for such person and persons to kill and distroy such negroes, mulattoes, and other slave or slaves by gunn or any otherwaise whatsoever.” (Hening). This law addressed the recapturing of escaped slaves and their return to the master. Furthermore this law justified the killing of negros that refused to return to their masters and compensated their overseers four thousand pounds of tobacco. This law also legally defined the term white, which further separated negroes, mulattos, and indigenous people from the English. Moreover, the passage of the April 1691-ACT XVI attempted  to suppress runaway slave communities. This law addressed interracial marriage and mulatto children. “in case such English woman that shall have such bastard child be a servant, she shall be sold by the said church wardens, (after her time is expired that she ought by law to serve her master) for five yeares, and the money she shall be sold for divided as is before appointed, and the child to serve as aforesaid” (Hening). As a result, mothers who gave birth to biracial children had to pay a fine to the church and give 5 years of their life to the church. This further separated black people from the English because even the mulatto baby gets separated from its mother.

Works Cited 

Hening. “Virtual Jamestown .” Virtual jamestown, 1998. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/laws1.html#3.