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Difficulty: EasyGendered Dimensions of Slavery and Resistance

In 1662, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law stating that 'all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.'

Which of the following was the primary consequence of this legal statute?

  1. It codified hereditary bondage in the colonies by ensuring that the offspring of enslaved women inherited their mothers' status.Answer
  2. B
    It decreed that a child's legal status was determined by the father, matching traditional English common law.
  3. C
    It immediately replaced all indentured servitude with racialized chattel slavery throughout the British colonies.
  4. D
    It granted enslaved mothers the legal right to sue for their children's freedom in colonial courts.

Answer

The statute codified hereditary bondage by ensuring that the offspring of enslaved women inherited their mothers' status.
The 1662 Virginia statute legally enacted the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem ('that which is brought forth follows the womb'). By defining a child's legal status according to the status of their mother, colonial authorities ensured that the children of enslaved women would be born into slavery, thereby establishing a self-reproducing system of hereditary chattel labor.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the text of the 1662 Virginia law provided in the prompt.
The statute declares that children are 'bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.'
This establishes that a child's legal status is determined solely by the mother's status.
2
Identify the historical term and significance of this doctrine.
This doctrine is known as partus sequitur ventrem.
It meant that the child of an enslaved woman was born into slavery, making the status of enslavement hereditary and legally targeting enslaved women.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that matches this consequence.
The option stating that it codified hereditary bondage through the maternal line matches the historical effect of the law.
This option correctly describes how maternal inheritance of status institutionalized chattel slavery.

Key Concept

The doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem and the legal construction of hereditary slavery through the maternal line.
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Gendered Dimensions of Slavery and Resistance

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