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Difficulty: MediumDevelopment of Chattel Slavery

"Be it enacted by the Right Honorable the Lord Proprietary by the advice and consent of the upper and lower House of this present General Assembly, that all Negroes or other slaves already within the Province, and all Negroes and other slaves to be hereafter imported into the Province, shall serve Durante Vita [for life]. And all children born of any Negro or other slave shall be slaves as their fathers were, for the term of their lives."
— Maryland General Assembly, An Act Concerning Negroes and Other Slaves, 1664

The legal regulations described in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following developments in the British North American colonies?

  1. The codification of a permanent, hereditary racial labor system that distinguished enslaved Africans from English indentured servants.Answer
  2. B
    An effort to extend the Spanish encomienda system of coerced Native American labor into the British tobacco-growing regions.
  3. C
    The implementation of laws designed to standardize the length of indentured servitude contracts for European laborers.
  4. D
    The adoption of plantation-style labor regulations by New England colonies to support their agricultural economies.

Answer

The codification of a permanent, hereditary racial labor system that distinguished enslaved Africans from English indentured servants.
The correct answer is correct because the Maryland Act of 1664 legally established lifelong slavery ('Durante Vita') and hereditary status ('slaves as their fathers were'), which is the defining characteristic of chattel slavery. This law represents the institutionalization and legal codification of a racial labor system that was distinct from the temporary contract labor of white indentured servants.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary source text.
Identify key terms such as 'serve Durante Vita [for life]' and 'children born of any Negro or other slave shall be slaves as their fathers were.'
This establishes that the law defines lifelong and hereditary servitude.
2
Contextualize the document within Period 2 (1607–1754).
Recognize that during the mid-to-late seventeenth century, British colonies, especially in the Chesapeake (Maryland and Virginia), transitioned from a reliance on indentured servants to racialized chattel slavery.
This places the legal changes in the broader trend of colonial labor development.
3
Select the option that matches this historical development.
The correct option describes the codification of a permanent, hereditary racial labor system.
It directly aligns with the legal definition of lifelong, hereditary status for enslaved Africans.

Key Concept

Development of Chattel Slavery
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Topics

Development of Chattel Slavery

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