Examkin

Question

Difficulty: EasyLegal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

In 1662, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law declaring that children born in the colony would inherit the legal status of their mother. Which of the following was the direct consequence of this colonial statute?

  1. A
    It determined that a child's legal status was derived from their father, in accordance with traditional English common law.
  2. It legally established hereditary slavery, ensuring that children born to enslaved women inherited their mother's enslaved status.Answer
  3. C
    It immediately established a complete, fully formed legal system of chattel slavery across all English colonies in 1619.
  4. D
    It guaranteed that any child born to a free European father would be automatically free, regardless of the mother's status.

Answer

It legally established hereditary slavery, ensuring that children born to enslaved women inherited their mother's enslaved status.
The correct answer is correct because the 1662 Virginia statute established the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem, which legally dictated that children inherited the status of their mother, thereby cementing hereditary chattel slavery.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of the 1662 Virginia law referenced in the prompt.
The law states that a child's legal status (free or bond) follows the status of the mother.
This establishes the core legal mechanism of the statute.
2
Determine the direct consequence of tying child status to the mother's status in the context of colonial America.
Since enslaved women gave birth to children, those children would automatically be born into slavery, making the status hereditary.
This identifies the long-term impact on the growth and codification of chattel slavery.

Key Concept

The statutory codification of hereditary chattel slavery through the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem.
Rate this question

Topics

Legal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

More questions from this topic