During the seventeenth century, British colonies in North America transitioned from relying primarily on indentured servants to enforcing permanent, racialized chattel slavery. Which of the following best describes how colonial legislatures legally established this transition?
- ABy implementing a single comprehensive slave code in 1619 that instantly codified racial slavery in all colonies.
- By passing incremental colonial statutes over several decades that defined enslaved Africans as property and made enslavement hereditary.Answer
- CBy maintaining English common law traditions that determined a child's legal status based on the status of their father.
- DBy relying on existing English laws that had already fully defined and structured racial chattel slavery prior to colonization.
Answer
Colonial legislatures established racialized chattel slavery by passing incremental colonial statutes over several decades that defined enslaved Africans as property and made enslavement hereditary.
The correct option is correct because the legal construction of racialized chattel slavery was a gradual, statutory process. Throughout the seventeenth century, colonial assemblies passed specific, piecemeal laws—such as Virginia's 1662 statute on hereditary status and the 1705 codification of slave laws—to systematically define enslaved people as property and separate their legal rights from white indentured servants.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
The gradual statutory construction of chattel slavery and racial slave codes in colonial America.
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