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Difficulty: HardLegal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

Read the following excerpt from a statute enacted by the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1669:

"WHEREAS the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistress or overseer cannot be inflicted upon negroes, nor the obstinacy of many of them... prevented... if any slave resist his master (or other by his master's order correcting him) and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accompted felony, but the master... be acquit from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that prepensed malice (which alone makes murther felony) should induce any man to destroy his owne estate."

Which of the following historical developments in the British colonies is best illustrated by this statute?

  1. The legal codification of enslaved people as chattel property, which shielded enslavers from criminal liability for murder.Answer
  2. B
    The instantaneous establishment of a fully formed, uniform legal code of racial slavery across all colonies upon initial settlement.
  3. C
    The application of the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem to ensure that children inherited their legal status from their mothers.
  4. D
    The successful elimination of covert forms of daily resistance among the enslaved population in the Chesapeake region.

Answer

The legal codification of enslaved people as chattel property, which shielded enslavers from criminal liability for murder.
The correct option is correct because the 1669 Virginia statute defined enslaved individuals as the master's "owne estate" (property) and decreed that their death under correction would not be considered a felony, thereby legally constructing enslaved people as chattel property and eliminating legal protections for their lives.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the text of the 1669 Virginia statute.
The statute states that if a slave dies during correction, it is not a felony because the master would not destroy his own "estate" (property).
This establishes that enslaved people were legally treated as property, not human beings with legal protections.
2
Evaluate the options in the context of the legal construction of slavery.
Identify that the law illustrates the incremental legal transition to chattel slavery by legally defining human beings as property (estate) and removing criminal accountability for their deaths.
This directly matches the core learning objective on how slave codes constructed the legal status of enslaved people.

Key Concept

Chattel Property and the Legal Construction of Slavery

Hints

1
Focus on the phrase 'destroy his owne estate' and the legal exemption from felony charges described in the text.
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Legal Construction of Slavery and Slave Codes

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