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Difficulty: MediumLegal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

Read the following excerpt from a 1662 Virginia statute:

"Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand Assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother..."

The legal doctrine established in this statute represented a significant departure from English common law by doing which of the following?

  1. A
    Declaring that any child born to a free English father was automatically granted freedom, creating a legal class of free mixed-race colonial citizens.
  2. B
    Establishing a fully formed, uniform system of racial chattel slavery across all English colonies immediately upon initial settlement.
  3. Reversing the English common law tradition that a child's status followed the father, thereby legally institutionalizing hereditary chattel slavery through the maternal line.Answer
  4. D
    Abolishing the indentured servitude of European women while maintaining contract-based labor systems for African men.

Answer

Reversing the English common law tradition that a child's status followed the father, thereby legally institutionalizing hereditary chattel slavery through the maternal line.
The correct answer is that the statute reversed the English common law tradition where a child's status followed the father, replacing it with the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem (status follows the mother). This ensured that the children of enslaved women would inherit their mother's status, thereby legally institutionalizing hereditary chattel slavery and shielding white colonial fathers from legal obligations to their mixed-race offspring.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the 1662 Virginia statute's text to identify how the status of a newborn is determined.
The statute declares that children's status (bond or free) follows the condition of the mother.
To understand the core legal mechanism introduced by the law.
2
Compare the statutory mechanism with English common law traditions.
English common law held that status followed the father, whereas the statute reverses this to follow the mother (partus sequitur ventrem).
To identify the point of departure between colonial legislation and established English legal systems.
3
Assess the long-term impact of this legal change on colonial labor and society.
Tying legal status to the mother ensured that the offspring of enslaved women remained enslaved in perpetuity, providing a legal basis for hereditary chattel slavery.
To connect the legal change to the broader historical process of institutionalizing racialized slavery.

Key Concept

The doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem and the legal codification of hereditary slavery.
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Legal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

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