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Zorluk: OrtaDevelopment of Chattel Slavery

Read the following excerpt from an act passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1669:

'Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their masters... cannot be inflicted upon negroes, [it is enacted] that if any slave shall resist his master... and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted felony, but the master... be acquit of all punishment, since it cannot be presumed that prepensed malice (which alone makes murder felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate.'

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

  1. The legal definition of enslaved Africans as permanent property (chattel) rather than temporary laborersCevap
  2. B
    The extension of legal protections and eventual freedom rights to indentured servants
  3. C
    The alignment of labor laws and demographics between New England and the Southern colonies
  4. D
    The efforts of the British government to limit colonial reliance on slave labor under mercantilist policy

Cevap

The legal definition of enslaved Africans as permanent property (chattel) rather than temporary laborers
The correct option is correct because the 1669 act describes enslaved people as a master's 'own estate,' establishing that they were legally classified as property (chattel). The law's removal of murder charges for killing a slave during 'correction' illustrates the creation of a distinct legal system where enslaved Africans possessed no personal rights, contrasting with the temporary status of indentured servants.

Adım Adım Çözüm

1
Analyze the text of the 1669 Virginia act.
The text references 'negroes' and 'slaves' who resist their masters, declaring that if they die from correction, it is not a felony because a master would not deliberately destroy their 'own estate'.
This shows that the law views enslaved people as property (estate) rather than human subjects with legal protections.
2
Identify the historical context of late 17th-century labor in the Chesapeake.
During this period, colonial legislatures increasingly codified laws to transition from indentured servitude to lifelong, hereditary racial slavery (chattel slavery).
These legal distinctions were designed to maintain control over a growing slave population and secure a permanent labor force for tobacco plantation economies.
3
Evaluate the choices to match the correct historical development.
The option describing the legal definition of enslaved Africans as permanent property directly matches the concept of chattel slavery shown in the source text.
This distinguishes the status of slaves from that of indentured servants who retained some legal protections and eventual freedom.

Anahtar Kavram

The transition from indentured servitude to chattel slavery, codified through colonial laws that defined enslaved people as property.
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Konular

Development of Chattel Slavery

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