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Difficulty: MediumLegal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

Read the following excerpt from a 1681 Maryland statute regarding the status of indentured women and enslaved men:

'[If] any master... shall by any instigation, procurement or consent, confederate, or suffer any freeborn English or white woman servant in his... service or custody to intermarry with any slave... the said woman... shall be immediately... free... and all the issue of such freeborn woman... shall be free.'

Which of the following best explains the primary purpose of this legislative revision?

  1. A
    To enforce the legal doctrine of *partus sequitur ventrem* by mandating that all children born to free women and enslaved fathers inherit the father's legal status.
  2. To prevent colonial masters from exploiting marriage laws to extend the labor terms of white female servants and enslave their children.Answer
  3. C
    To establish a uniform, instantaneous legal code across all British North American colonies that standardized racial chattel slavery.
  4. D
    To encourage the integration of free and enslaved labor forces by removing legal barriers to marriages between servants and slaves.

Answer

The primary purpose was to prevent colonial masters from exploiting marriage laws to extend the labor terms of white female servants and enslave their children.
The correct answer is correct because the 1681 Maryland statute was enacted to close a loophole in the 1664 law. The 1664 law had decreed that white women who married enslaved men would serve their husbands' masters and their children would be enslaved. Some masters abused this by forcing or encouraging such marriages to extend the women's service and enslave their offspring. The 1681 amendment penalized this by granting immediate freedom to the woman and ensuring the children were born free if the master consented to or instigated the marriage, thus protecting the white indentured labor force from predatory exploitation.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of Maryland's 1664 law.
The 1664 law bound free white women who married enslaved men to lifetime service to their husbands' masters and enslaved their children.
This establishes the baseline legal framework that masters were exploiting.
2
Analyze the changes introduced by the 1681 revision.
The 1681 amendment freed the woman immediately and protected the children's free status if the master consented to the marriage.
This identifies the target and penalty of the new law, which focused on the master's agency and consent.
3
Deduce the primary purpose of the revision.
The amendment was designed to stop masters from manipulating marriage to increase their holdings of enslaved laborers and extend the service of white indentured women.
This explains the economic and legal motivation behind the legislative shift.

Key Concept

The step-by-step statutory development of chattel slavery and the regulation of labor and race in colonial America.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Legal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

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