Virginia Slave Law Summary and Record
The first known enslaved persons in the Virginia colony arrived in 1619, when a Dutch warship delivered 20 blacks captured from a Spanish slave ship, including three women, to Jamestown. These first blacks came as agricultural laborers, and their actual status may have been more similar to that of a white indentured servant than to a slave. Thousands of English workers came to Virginia in the seventeenth century, agreeing to work as servants and laborers for at least six years in return for land. Enslaved blacks and white indentured workers toiled side-by-side on the farms and tobacco plantations in the first 30 years of the colony's history. They worked, ate, played, and even lived together. Some of these enslaved Africans and indentured Europeans even married and had children. More than a few of the enslaved, ended up as freed persons, somehow acquiring a little land or else working as skilled workers for themselves. In other words, the line between slavery and freedom was not always starkly visible in the early years. By 1700, things had changed. Black captives became slaves for life and were defined as chattel property, meaning that they had no more rights before the law than any other piece of property, such as a cow or even a plow. Whites and blacks were given different work assignments and blacks were no longer listed in ledger books or population counts with a surname, unlike white indentured servants. Laws were passed making intermarriage illegal, and Anglican priests began preaching that blacks were inferior human beings. Most importantly, white Virginians passed a series of slave codes or laws aimed at defining in detail the lives of the enslaved persons with whom they lived. The Virginia slave code 1699 emphasized that whippings and other forms of corporeal punishment had become standard practice for dealing with the enslaved. Unlike an indentured servant, adding years of service to one's term of service did not work with people who were slaves for life. Some of the statutes were very narrow, such as the law that punished pig stealing by nailing the thief's severed ears to a pillory post. Statutes stipulated when slaves could testify in court, the penalty for burning barns and crops, how slaveholders were to be compensated by the colonial government whenever one of their enslaved persons was executed for their crimes, and how slaves were to be punished for insulting whites. Numerous statutes detailed the procedures to be used in handling runaway slaves. (A runaway slave named Billy was so notorious in his escape that a special law was passed in 1701 ordering that he be killed immediately upon his capture.) Regulating relations between whites and blacks appeared on the statute books as early as 1630, punishing white men with a whipping before an assembly of slaves for have sex with a black woman. Stricter laws against miscegenation did not appear, however, until after the 1690s, when marriages between whites and blacks became illegal, with the white person banished from the colony as punishment. In addition to laws governing the conduct of enslaved persons, Virginia laws began in 1705 to define more clearly the status of enslaved people as property. They could be used as collateral for borrowing money and as assets in the payment of debts. Creditors, moreover, had first claim on enslaved persons in settlement of debts, and even those who had been freed could be re-enslaved to settle a debt owned by their former master. Also, the widow of a slaveholding husband was entitled to one third of her deceased husband's slaves including those who had been promised their freedom. Over time, the legal status of enslaved persons in Virginia reflected two dominant tendencies: First, blacks imported from Africa declined in status from being agricultural laborers to being enslaved persons deemed chattel for life with few protections under the law. Historians disagree on why this happened. Some contend that it was a rather thoughtless process that gradually emerged for economic reasons and in the context of the times. Africans enslaved for life were cheaper to use once the price of importing and keeping white indentured servants began to rise. It was relatively easy to treat them as property because of the prevailing racist attitudes among whites toward blacks. Others say that it was a more conscious effort on the part of white planter elites to replace a more rebellious white labor force with enslaved blacks following upon Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. When Nathaniel Bacon led an army of backcountry farmers and some free blacks against local Indians, and then revolted against the landed elite living in the tidewater area of the Colony, upper-class Virginians feared class conflict. They moved to stop this by de-emphasizing imports of indentured servants from England in favor of enslaved persons from Africa. In addition, they began a campaign to separate blacks from whites socially and culturally by supporting laws and talk based upon the assumption that all black people were inferior by reason of their race. Secondly, laws and attitudes governing enslaved persons became more restrictive over time, especially in the nineteenth century. This strictness in the policing of slaves in the nineteenth century reversed what looked to be a weakening of such controls just prior to the Americans Revolution. Historians suggest that it occurred in response to (1) the growing attacks upon slavery by northern abolitionists, (2) the aborted slave uprising of Gabriel Prosser in 1800 and the modestly successful slave revolt of Nat Turner in 1831, and (3) the importance of the domestic slave trade to the Virginia economy. On the eve of the American Revolution, many white Virginians believed, along with Thomas Jefferson, that slavery was a "necessary evil," that it would probably die out in time due to the exhausted soils and a declining tobacco economy. But by 1830, many whites argued that slavery was a "positive good," and they supported laws designed to prevent slave rebellions and runaways. What's more, many slaveholders needed to crack down on various informal freedoms that had grown up--such as being allowed to visit neighboring plantations at night--in order to keep blacks from running away. Hundreds of blacks fled slavery after the 1830s rather than being sold in the domestic slave trade to the cotton and sugar regions of the Deep South. Slave trading had become a vital part of the Virginian economy, and this meant stricter slave controls. Virginia legislators even began to pass laws making it nearly impossible for slaveholders to free their enslaved property. Free blacks were prohibited from migrating into Virginia and could be sold into slavery (1851). A law passed in 1847 declared that free blacks charged with a misdemeanor were to be punished in the same manner as an enslaved person guilty of the same offense. So perplexed were lawmakers by the problem of how to handle the free black population that in 1815 the Virginia Assembly passed a resolution asking the Federal government to find a place on the northern Pacific Coast where free black Virginians could be resettled. The Virginia legislature even enacted a statute in1856 allowing free blacks to enslave themselves to a master of their choosing. Sources Primary A Collection of All Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, First Volume of the Revised Code. Richmond, Va.: Samuel Pleasants, Printer to the Commonwealth, 1814. Henning, William Waller. The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, From the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. New York: R. & W. & G. Bartow, 1823. Shepherd, Samuel. The Statutes At Large of Virginia, From October Session 1792, to December Session 1806, Inclusive, In Three Volumes, Being a Continuation of Henning. New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1835. First AMS Edition published 1970. Supplement to the Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia Passed Since the Year 1819. Richmond, Va.: Samuel Shepherd & Company, 1833. Secondary Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne Owne Ground": Race & Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Morgan, Edmund. S. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975. Morgan, Philip D. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Low Country. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Sobel, Mechal. The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1987. Virginia Laws on Slavery from the Colonial Era to the Civil War TYPE YEAR LAWS/CODES DESCRIPTION
Miscegenation 1630 Judicial ruling The Governor and Council of Virginia ruled that Hugh Davis (a white man) who was convicted of "lying with a Negro" be soundly whipped before an assembly of enslaved blacks and others for "abusing himself to the dishonor of God and shame of Christians." Punishment also included a public apology on the next Sabbath.
Firearms 1639 Statute Enslaved blacks prohibited from bearing firearms. If found with a weapon the punishment was 20 lashes. An exception to this law existed on the frontier; with his master's permission, an enslaved black could bear firearms to ward off marauding Indians.
Miscegenation 1640 Judicial ruling Robert Sweet, a white man, ordered to do penance in church according to the laws of England, for impregnating an enslaved black woman. The woman was ordered to be whipped by the Governor and his Council.
Duty 1659 Statute Dutch and other foreigners required to pay duty on tobacco produced by sale of blacks.
Runaways 1661 Statute Slavery was legally recognized with passage of fugitive slave law. Enslaved blacks could not be punished by adding time to their period of servitude, because they served for life. The decree further noted that if a white servant ran off with a black, he would serve his penalty time plus that of the black, because time could not be added to the black's lifetime of servitude.
Children 1662 Statute A child took the status of his/her mother (partis sequitor ventrum). This statute contrasted with common law, which conferred the father's status on the child. If the usual condition applied, slavery would slowly have become extinct because of the number of white masters who fathered enslaved children.
Slavery legalized 1667 Statute Baptism did not change the status of the convert, meaning Christian slaves would remain enslaved.
Women 1668 Statute Free black women, although permitted to enjoy their freedom, were not recognized to have full rights of English women.
Penal Code 1669 Statute Colonial legislators decided that corporal punishment was the only way a master could correct an enslaved black since his or her time of service could not be extended. This law represented the loss of legal protection for a black's life in Virginia.
Slavery legalized 1670 Statute All non-Christian servants who came to Virginia by ship were made slaves for life. Blacks who came by land from another colony had to serve for 12 years, and children had to serve until the age of 30.
Runaways 1672 Statute Law urged and rewarded the killing of Maroons, a loose description of fugitive or runaway slaves who had established camps in the woods where they lived a nomadic life. Many engaged in attacks upon plantation and towns. The term "maroons" came from the Spanish word "cimarrones," a term for runaway slaves.
Free blacks 1676 Statute Free blacks were prohibited from keeping white servants.
Slave Code 1680 Statute The colony's first major slave code was enacted in reaction to a series of uprising by settlers, servants and enslaved blacks. Laws were designed to keep blacks peaceful and subservient. Enslaved blacks were prohibited from carrying weapons, or leaving their master's home without a certificate. Punishment for violating the laws was 20 lashes. Laws were strengthened in 1705.
Slavery legalized 1682 Statute All servants, except Turks and Moors, brought to this country whose native religion was not Christianity were declared slaves.
Racial status 1682 Statute Two acts were passed in November 1682 that joined Native Americans and Africans into one racial category as "negroes and other slaves."
Freedom of movement 1682 Statute Enslaved blacks were not allowed to gather at a plantation other than that of their master for more than four hours.
Miscegenation 1691 Statute Any white woman in Virginia who married a black or mulatto, bond or free, was to be banished.
Slave Code 1691 Statute Illegal for whites to marry blacks or Indians, whether free or not. Also made it difficult for masters to free their black slaves and for free blacks to remain in colony. Included a provision that made it lawful to "kill and distroy by gun or any otherwaise whatsoever" enslaved blacks or mulattoes who unlawfully absented themselves from the service of their masters. Also noted that any white man or woman who intermarried with a black, mulatto or Native American were to be banished. A white free woman who gave birth to a black or mulatto child was ordered to pay 15 pounds sterling within one month after child was born to church wardens. Such a child was ordered to be bound out as a servant by the church until he or she reached age 30. The mother's punishment was to be sold as a servant by church wardens for five years. In addition, the statute noted that no black or mulatto could be set free by any person unless such person paid for their transportation out of the country within six months after setting them free and paying ten pound sterling to church wardens.
Manumission 1691 Statute To limit the increase of free blacks manumissions required special legislative acts.
Penal Code 1692 Statute This law marked the first time that Virginia legislators detailed the procedure for an enslaved black brought to trial for a capital offense. A black had a trial in a court of oyer and terminer, which translated as "to hear and determine." Four of a county's justices of the peace heard the trial and decided the fate of the enslaved person charged with a crime. Blacks were denied jury trials, a right reserved for white men and women only. Statute also declared that enslaved blacks were prohibited from owning horses, cattle and hogs.
Duty 1699 Statute A duty of 20 shillings was placed on each imported black servant. The revenue was used to rebuild government buildings.
Penal Code 1699 Statute An enslaved black who stole a hog was to be tried in court and if found guilty would receive 39 lashes. If convicted of a second offense would be ordered to have both ears nailed to a pillory for two hours and then cut off. Any black, mulatto or Native American who gave false testimony in the trial of any slave for hog stealing would receive the same corporal punishment as the convicted slave.
Runaways 1701 Statute Legislators offered a reward for anyone who killed Billy, a notorious runaway slave, accused of destroying crops and robbery.
Property rights 1705 Statute Prior to this statute, enslaved blacks were regarded as chattel, like livestock. The new law made enslaved blacks real estate and chattel that could be used for paying a debt.
Penal Code 1705 Statute An enslaved black could not be a witness or call other enslaved persons as witnesses.
Military service 1705 Statute Enslaved blacks were not to serve in the militia. Act did not restrict the participation of free black men in the militia.
Racial status 1705 Statute This statute contains the first definition of a mulatto in Virginia laws. Child of a Native American and the child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a black was deemed a mulatto.
Duty 1705 Statute A sum of 20 shillings was due for every black imported into Virginia.
Freedom of movement 1705 Statute An enslaved black could not leave his plantation unless he had a certificate describing the circumstances of his absence. If a black resisted arrest, he could be killed, and his killer would not be prosecuted. Parish ministers were required to read this law every six months; failure to do so resulted in a fine of 600 pounds of tobacco. If a slave ran away a second time, an R was branded on his cheek.
Penal Code 1705 Statute More than five enslaved blacks meeting together "to make insurrection" were guilty of a felony and were executed without benefit of clergy. A black who killed another black was executed with a minister present. A conviction of burglary brought the dealty penalty without attendance of clergy.
Commerce 1705 Statute Whites who traded with enslaved blacks were jailed for one month, and any goods the black had obtained were confiscated and sold. If an enslaved person traded with whites with his master's permission, the master was fined ten pounds.
Slavery legalized 1705 Statute All imported servants were to remain in lifelong servitude with the exception of those who had been Christians in their native country or had been free in a Christian country. Law limited slavery to blacks.
Slave status 1706 Statute Baptism did not alter the status of enslaved persons.
Penal Code 1732 Statute Prohibited enslaved blacks from giving testimony except in the case of another black in a capital offense. If an enslaved person was suspected of lying in court, he received 39 lashes and his ears were nailed to the pillory.
Duty 1732 Statute A five percent duty was placed on imported blacks for four years.
Duty 1740 Statute The duty on imported enslaved blacks was increased five percent to raise and transport troops. Law was extended in 1745, 1755, 1757, and 1759. These duties became so high that some plantation owners traveled to Maryland and North Carolina to procure workers more cheaply.
Penal Code 1744 Statute "Any free Negro, mulatto or Indian being a Christian" was allowed as a witness in both civil and criminal suits against any black, mulatto or Native American, slave or free.
Property rights 1748 Statute Enslaved persons became the personal estate of their owners and were no longer considered as real estate.
Slave trade 1772 Statute The colony passed 33 acts against the importation of blacks, but all were vetoed by the English Crown.
Runaways 1775 Statute Allowed sale, banishment or execution of blacks caught attempting to flee. Law was enforced in 1776 when four runaways were hanged and 25 others were sold to the West Indies.
Penal Code 1778 Statute "Governor was empowered to direct Justices of each county to be empowered to try, condemn and execute or otherwise punish or acquit all slaves committing capital crimes in their county." Signed by Governor Patrick Henry.
Manumission 1782 Statute Removed restrictions on voluntary manumissions. Law was repealed five years later.
Manumission 1783 Statute Gave freedom to enslaved blacks who had served in the Continental Army with the consent of their masters.
Anti-emancipation 1784-1785 Petition Five pro-slavery petitions signed by 1,244 persons and presented to the state legislature asserted that emancipation was "exceedingly impolitic" because it would produce "Want, Poverty, Distress and Ruin to the Free Citizen." They also appealed to property rights proclaiming that slavery was best for blacks, pointed to Biblical precedent, and warned of "the Horrors of all the Rapes, Murders, and Outrages, which a vast Multitude of unprincipled, unpropertied, revengeful, and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating."
Penal Code 1788 Statute Defined the malicious killing of an enslaved black as murder subject to the same penalty imposed upon the murderer of a freeman.
Property rights 1792 Statute Sheriffs and tax collectors prohibited from seizing enslaved persons from property owners if other assets available. Liable to action of the grieved party. Damages awarded not to exceed $7.
Ownership 1792 Statute No black, mulatto, or Native Americans could purchase any white servant.
Runaways 1792 Statute Detailed method of capturing runaway servants or slaves and conveying them to prison or to their owners. Jailors' fees for committing, maintaining and releasing runaways noted.
Slave Code 1792 Statute The 1792 slave code contained 53 acts that covered the importation of blacks, freedom of movement among those enslaved, prohibitions against bearing arms, punishments for rebellious behavior, unlawful assembly, trading with blacks, attacks on whites by a black, punishment for attempted rape of a white woman (castration), procedures for capturing runaways, prohibitions against enslaved blacks administering medicines, legal counsel for blacks accused of criminal offenses, perjury punishable by cutting off the offender's ears plus 39 lashes, provisions for emancipation, and prohibited ship masters from transporting enslaved persons out of state without masters' consent. Code also defined a mulatto as a person with one quarter black blood.
Property rights 1793 Statute No sheriff or other officer could seize enslaved persons unless the debt and costs owed amounted to $33 or over 2,000 pounds of tobacco, provided other goods were available to cover debt.
Free blacks 1793 Statute Unlawful for any free black or mulatto to migrate into Virginia. Such persons would be exported to their last place of residence. Ship captains responsible for bringing free blacks into the state to be fined 100 pounds. Enslaved blacks brought from Africa or West Indies to be transported out of commonwealth, with expense charged to the person who imported such slaves.
Property rights 1795 Statute Widows were entitled to one third part of her husband's slave property although emancipated by her deceased husband's will.
Penal Code 1795 Statute Persons convicted of forging documents whereby enslaved persons might pass as free were to be fined $200 and imprisoned for 1 year without bail.
Penal Code 1795 Statute Lawful for any person who believed himself or herself to be illegally enslaved to file a complaint to the county court. Petitioner to be assigned counsel. Persons found aiding in the prosecution of cases that failed to establish a claim to freedom fined $100.
Transporting enslaved 1796 Statute Virginia residents allowed to take enslaved persons out of state and bring them back without penalty. These individuals were not entitled to freedom.
Rebellion 1798 Statute Free persons convicted of exciting enslaved persons to insurrection or murder, to be executed. Free persons convicted of harboring slaves to pay a fine of $10. If unable to pay, offender to receive 39 lashes.
Penal Code 1798 Statute Members of abolitionist societies disqualified to serve as jurors in suits for an enslaved black's freedom.
Free blacks 1798 Statute Free blacks or mulattoes who gave copies of their freedom registration to enslaved blacks were to be charged with a felony.
Transporting enslaved 1798 Statute Ship masters prohibited from carrying enslaved persons out of the state without showing a certificate of freedom to the court clerk or written permission of a slave's owner. Penalty: $500 for each offense.
Commerce 1798 Statute Prohibited blacks or mulattoes from offering goods for sale.
Kidnapping 1799 Statute Persons guilty of stealing any enslaved black or mulatto to be executed. Proviso noted that when the state penitentiary house became ready to receive criminals, offenders would be sentenced 3 to 8 years.
Penal Code 1800 Statute Governor could order and commute a enslaved person's death sentence and direct that such person be sold and transported outside the U.S. Offender could also be ordered to work on a public works project. Free blacks sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary and could be employed by public works.
Penal Code 1801 Statute Enslaved black under sentence of death for conspiracy to be purchased and transported out of state. Convicted blacks who returned to Virginia to be apprehended and executed. Owners of all enslaved persons sold or transported to be compensated in the same manner as for executed offenders.
Hiring out 1801 Statute Enslaved blacks not permitted to hire themselves out. Owners of such slaves to be fined $40 for each offense.
Slave trade 1801 Statute Enslaved blacks brought into Virginia from outside the state to be apprehended and jailed. Such persons were to be transported out of the commonwealth at public expense.
Registry of enslaved/free blacks 1801 Statute Tax commissioners required to annually prepare a list of all free blacks and mulattoes within his district. Failure to do so resulted in a fine of $20. Free blacks who moved to another county without "honest employment" could be deemed and treated as a vagrant.
Transporting enslaved 1802 Statute Ship masters who permitted any enslaved black to board his vessel without the consent of his master to be fined $20. In cases where the skipper of a vessel was an enslaved black he would receive 39 lashes for every offense.
Commerce 1802 Statute Persons who bought or sold commodities from enslaved blacks on the Sabbath would pay $10 in addition to already established penalties.
Registry of enslaved 1804 Statute Widows who inherited enslaved blacks were required to register them with county clerk for a fee of $1.
Unlawful assembly 1804 Statute Any meeting of enslaved blacks in the night was considered an unlawful assembly. Punishment not to exceed 20 lashes.
Penal Code 1805 Statute Enslaved blacks convicted of attempting to "ravish" a white woman were guilty of a felony. No penalty listed.
Kidnapping 1805 Statute Persons found guilty of transporting blacks outside of Virginia or any county without the consent of their master was guilty of a misdemeanor. Fine: $100 to $500 plus two to five year prison sentence.
Education 1805 Statute Black or mulatto orphans not to be taught reading, writing or arithmetic.
Unlawful assembly 1805 Statute Unlawful meeting of enslaved blacks amended to not include religious worship with a slave's master, conducted by an ordained or licensed white minister.
Slave Code 1806 Statute Slave code amended. Enslaved blacks brought into the state and kept for one year would be sold and owners would forfeit their rights to such persons. Penalty: $400 for every black so bought, sold or hired. Owners of such persons who were convicted and executed for a capital crime would not be compensated. In addition, emancipated blacks who remained in state longer than 12 months would forfeit their freedom and be sold.
Transporting enslaved 1807 Statute Persons who left the state with the intention of returning had the right to travel with their enslaved blacks and bring them back. Furthermore, owners whose land extended across the boundary line of the state, had the right to work his blacks on each side. Inhabitants of other states had the right to travel with their enslaved blacks in Virginia and to use them to bring produce to any market.
Hiring out 1808 Statute Lawful duty of sheriffs and other citizens to apprehend and bring enslaved blacks before a magistrate who had hired himself out. Penalty for owners: $10 - $20.
Penal Code 1808 Statute Penalty on enslaved blacks who burned barns, stables or other house was death if the amount of damage was $10 or more. Blacks found guilty of burning crops were to be burned on the hand and to be whipped up to 39 lashes.
Free blacks 1815 Resolution Assembly passed a resolution asking the Federal government to find a place on the northern Pacific Coast where free blacks from Virginia could be settled.
Runaways 1817 Statute The objective of this act was to widen the geographic coverage of runaway laws. Higher rewards were offered to people who arrested Virginia runaways in Maryland or Kentucky. Enslaved blacks returned from New Jersey, New York, Ohio or Delaware brought even higher compensation.
Penal Code 1819 Statute Convicts and enslaved blacks to be separated from other prisoners. Windows and fireplaces or stoves to be provided.
Property rights 1819 Statute Enslaved blacks acquired by infants to descend as real estate.
Penal Code 1820 Statute Enslaved blacks accused of crimes to be tried in the county from which the offender was removed. Act also noted that it was lawful to hire out blacks and mulattoes for the payment of their taxes provided that none were hired for a sum less than 8 cents per day.
Free blacks 1820 Statute Overseers of poor to examine, every three months the condition of free blacks and mulattoes, and determine who were vagrants. Free blacks prohibited from trading with enslaved blacks.
Runaways 1822 Statute Runaway blacks confined in jail not to be sold without an order of the court.
Runaways 1823 Statute Persons who apprehended runaway blacks in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania or Indiana, and delivered blacks to their owner or a public jail within Virginia were entitled to a reward of $50 and 20 cents per mile for their travel. The reward for apprehending a runaway slave in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York or Vermont was $120.
Runaways 1823 Statute Runaway blacks in jail to be furnished with "proper negro clothing or other necessaries." Cost to be paid by the slave owner.
Penal Code 1823 Statute Any enslaved black, free black or mulatto who assaulted a white person with the intention to kill to be judged guilty of a felony, and be punished by whipping. Free blacks or mulattoes to be transported and banished from the United States. Any convict who returned to the state would be executed.
Penal Code 1824 Statute Detailed how enslaved blacks condemned to be executed who escape and then are recaptured to be handled. Act also noted that it was unlawful for owners of a black of unsound mind, or aged or infirm to permit such a person to go at large without adequate provision for his or her support. A fine of $50 for each offense imposed.
Runaways 1824 Statute Unlawful to entice or persuade any enslaved black to run away or to harbor a runaway.. Search warrants allowed where runaway blacks were suspected of being harbored.
Penal code 1825 Statute Free blacks or mulattoes convicted of the rape of a white woman sentenced to be executed.
Emancipation 1826 Statute No black, age 21 or older, emancipated since May 1, 1806, to remain more than 1 year in the state without lawful permission.
Slave Code 1827 Statute Slave code amended to include provisions for dealing with ship masters who harbored runaways. An 1806 act that allowed emancipated blacks remaining in the state for more than 12 months to be sold into slavery was repealed unless ordered by a grand jury. Proceeds of such a sale would be paid into the state's literary fund.
Penal Code 1828 Statute Free blacks convicted of any offense where the punishment was stripes, transportation and sale, were instead to be sentenced to confinement in the public jail and penitentiary for a term between five and 18 years. Same act noted that slaves convicted of larceny were to be punished by a whipping of not more than 39 stripes.
Runaways 1829 Statute Persons assisting the escape of runaways were guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by confinement in jail between three and 12 months.
Penal Code 1829 Statute Enslaved blacks guilty of burning crops valued at more than $50 were to be executed without benefit of clergy. Slaves who received stolen goods would receive up to 39 lashes.
Unlawful assembly 1830 Statute Assemblage of blacks for the purpose of religious worship conducted by a black and assemblies with the purpose of educating enslaved blacks were considered unlawful.
Certification 1830 Statute Certificates to be obtained by persons removing enslaved blacks to Louisiana. Owners were required to take an oath stating that such persons were not guilty nor had been convicted of any crimes within their knowledge, and that the enslaved was of good moral character, not in the habit of running away.
Emancipation/Education 1831 Statute Free blacks and mulattoes remaining in the state contrary to law, to be sold. Act also prohibited meetings to teach free blacks to read or write. The penalty on white persons who offered such instruction was $50. White persons who taught enslaved blacks were to be fined between $10 and $100.
Alcohol 1831 Statute Tavern keepers or merchants who sold liquor to an enslaved black would have his license revoked.
Education 1832 Statute Illegal to teach enslaved blacks how to read and write. Fine of $10 to $100. Law was strictly enforced unlike earlier literacy laws.
Slave Code 1832 Statute Revised slave code included provisions that prohibited enslaved blacks or free blacks from conducting religious services. In addition, white ministers were prohibited from preaching to blacks at night without the written permission of owners, or if their owners were in attendance. The code also noted that free blacks were no longer allowed to acquire ownership of any black other than their husband, wife or children. Free blacks were prohibited from keeping weapons. Enslaved blacks and free blacks were prohibited from selling or dispensing liquor at any public assembly. The writing or printing of any material that supported insurrection was forbidden. Free blacks were to be tried, convicted and punished in the same manner as enslaved blacks were prosecuted.
Free blacks 1832 Statute Upon the request of Northampton County an act was passed that called for the removal of free blacks "in a manner as humane and as little oppressive as possible." A sum of $15,000 was borrowed which was to be reimbursed by an annual tax.
Alcohol 1832 Statute Unlawful to sell alcohol to any enslaved black without the written consent of their master. Penalty: $10 to $50.
Free blacks 1833 Statute Unlawful for a free person to bring a free black into the state. Penalty: six month jail sentence and fine up to $100. Did not apply to free blacks who were traveling as servants.
Transporting enslaved 1836 Statute Railroad companies that transported enslaved blacks without the authorization of the slave owner was liable to the owner for the value of the enslaved person.
Patrols 1839 Statute Patrols had the right to force open the doors of free blacks or of enslaved blacks when in search of firearms or other weapons.
Free blacks 1840 Statute Free blacks prohibited from migrating into Virginia. If apprehended required to post bond and leave state within 10 days.
Property rights 1840 Statute Enslaved blacks not to be sold without the debtor's consent where there are other goods or chattel sufficient to cover the debt.
Insanity 1845 Statute No insane enslaved person to be retained in any asylum so as to exclude any white person residing in state. Enslaved black to be sent to jail or back to his master if necessary to make room for a white patient.
Kidnapping 1847 Statute Any person who kidnapped another person with intent to enslave him confined in the penitentiary between three and 10 years.
Miscegenation 1847 Statute Any white person who intermarried with a black to be confined in jail up to one year and fined up to $100. Person who performed ceremony fined $200.
Free blacks 1847 Statute Free blacks charged with a misdemeanor may be punished in the same way as an enslaved black for the same offense.
Penal Code 1847 Statute Noted how enslaved blacks were to be tried for felonies. Owners of slaves condemned to death would be compensated for their value.
Runaways 1847 Statute Search warrants to be issued in the search for runaways. If a runaway was apprehended he was to be returned to his owner or committed to jail.
Penal Code 1847 Statute Enslaved blacks to be punished by whipping for the following crimes: menacing gestures or language to a white person, keeping or carrying weapons, rioting, unlawful assembly or making seditious speeches, preparing or administering medicine. Punishment not to exceed 39 lashes.
Unlawful assembly 1847 Statute Enslaved blacks prohibited from gathering with other blacks for more than four hours at a time.
Rebellion 1848 Statute Provided the death penalty for advising or conspiring with an enslaved black to rebel.
Slave Code 1849 Statute In response to growth of abolition movement in the North, the code provided a fine and imprisonment for individuals who proclaimed "that owners have no right of property in their slaves." In addition, code defined mulattoes as persons with one quarter part or more black blood. The word "negro" was construed to mean mulattoes as well as blacks.
Re-enslavement 1851 Constitution Provided that emancipated blacks would be enslaved again if they did not leave the state within 12 months.
Gaming 1852 Statute Prohibited white persons from gaming with blacks, and was considered a felony.
Property 1852 Statute District commissioners ordered to track the number of enslaved blacks hired by incorporated companies and the aggregate value of such personal property.
Drugs 1855 Statute The sale of any poisonous drugs to an enslaved or free black was prohibited without the written permission of the owner or master. Penalty: $500.
Runaways 1855 Statute Persons who arrested a runaway was entitled to a reward of $5 within 50 miles of his residence, more than 50 miles, $10; if outside the state, $20. Mileage was to be reimbursed at a rate of 10 cents for each mile. The reward for arresting blacks in certain counties and in non-slaveholding states was higher.
Runaways 1855 Statute A trio of statues designed to prevent the escape of enslaved blacks. Included an inspection system for all boats leaving Virginia ports, and increased the penalties for helping blacks escape, including the requirement of a public whipping and a penitentiary sentence for free people and sale out of the state for an enslaved person. Act also increased the reward for arresting runaways.
Voluntary en-slavement 1856 Statute Blacks given the right to enslave themselves, by petition to the legislature, to a master of their choosing. A master would pay the court one half the valuation of the black.
Emancipation 1856 Statute Any person may emancipate any of his blacks by last will in writing or deed. All those emancipated were liable for any debt by the person emancipating them, before such emancipation would take effect.
Kidnapping 1857 Statute A free person found guilty of taking an enslaved black without the consent of his owner to be sentenced to the penitentiary for between 5 and 20 years. If black not recovered, offender liable to pay slave owner twice the value of the enslaved.
Free blacks 1858 Statute A free black could not acquire an enslaved black except "by descent."
Free blacks 1860 Statute Provided for sale into "absolute slavery" of free blacks convicted of offenses punishable by confinement in the penitentiary.
Racial status 1860 Statute Every person having one quarter or more or black blood was deemed a "colored person."
Emancipation 1860 Constitution Emancipated blacks would forfeit their freedom by remaining in the state more than 12 months. Furthermore, the general assembly would not emancipate any enslaved person, or the descendant of any such person.
Registration 1860 Constitution Called for the annual registration of births and deaths among the black population differentiating between the number of free and enslaved blacks..
Property 1860 Constitution Every enslaved black age 12 years and older to be assessed with a tax equal to and not exceeding that assessed on land of the value of $300. Blacks under the age of 12 not to be taxed.
Property rights 1860 Statute A widow was entitled to her share of the blacks belonging to her husband at the time of his death, even though they had been set free by his will.
Enslavement outlawed 1865 Constitution Enslavement and involuntary servitude outlawed.
Enslavement outlawed 1865 Statute Certain acts relating to enslavement repealed.
Children of enslaved 1872 Constitution Children of enslaved parents entitled to inheritance as though their parents had been legally married.
Miscegenation 1630 Judicial ruling The Governor and Council of Virginia ruled that Hugh Davis (a white man) who was convicted of "lying with a Negro" be soundly whipped before an assembly of enslaved blacks and others for "abusing himself to the dishonor of God and shame of Christians." Punishment also included a public apology on the next Sabbath.
Firearms 1639 Statute Enslaved blacks prohibited from bearing firearms. If found with a weapon the punishment was 20 lashes. An exception to this law existed on the frontier; with his master's permission, an enslaved black could bear firearms to ward off marauding Indians.
Miscegenation 1640 Judicial ruling Robert Sweet, a white man, ordered to do penance in church according to the laws of England, for impregnating an enslaved black woman. The woman was ordered to be whipped by the Governor and his Council.
Duty 1659 Statute Dutch and other foreigners required to pay duty on tobacco produced by sale of blacks.
Runaways 1661 Statute Slavery was legally recognized with passage of fugitive slave law. Enslaved blacks could not be punished by adding time to their period of servitude, because they served for life. The decree further noted that if a white servant ran off with a black, he would serve his penalty time plus that of the black, because time could not be added to the black's lifetime of servitude.
Children 1662 Statute A child took the status of his/her mother (partis sequitor ventrum). This statute contrasted with common law, which conferred the father's status on the child. If the usual condition applied, slavery would slowly have become extinct because of the number of white masters who fathered enslaved children.
Slavery legalized 1667 Statute Baptism did not change the status of the convert, meaning Christian slaves would remain enslaved.
Women 1668 Statute Free black women, although permitted to enjoy their freedom, were not recognized to have full rights of English women.
Penal Code 1669 Statute Colonial legislators decided that corporal punishment was the only way a master could correct an enslaved black since his or her time of service could not be extended. This law represented the loss of legal protection for a black's life in Virginia.
Slavery legalized 1670 Statute All non-Christian servants who came to Virginia by ship were made slaves for life. Blacks who came by land from another colony had to serve for 12 years, and children had to serve until the age of 30.
Runaways 1672 Statute Law urged and rewarded the killing of Maroons, a loose description of fugitive or runaway slaves who had established camps in the woods where they lived a nomadic life. Many engaged in attacks upon plantation and towns. The term "maroons" came from the Spanish word "cimarrones," a term for runaway slaves.
Free blacks 1676 Statute Free blacks were prohibited from keeping white servants.
Slave Code 1680 Statute The colony's first major slave code was enacted in reaction to a series of uprising by settlers, servants and enslaved blacks. Laws were designed to keep blacks peaceful and subservient. Enslaved blacks were prohibited from carrying weapons, or leaving their master's home without a certificate. Punishment for violating the laws was 20 lashes. Laws were strengthened in 1705.
Slavery legalized 1682 Statute All servants, except Turks and Moors, brought to this country whose native religion was not Christianity were declared slaves.
Racial status 1682 Statute Two acts were passed in November 1682 that joined Native Americans and Africans into one racial category as "negroes and other slaves."
Freedom of movement 1682 Statute Enslaved blacks were not allowed to gather at a plantation other than that of their master for more than four hours.
Miscegenation 1691 Statute Any white woman in Virginia who married a black or mulatto, bond or free, was to be banished.
Slave Code 1691 Statute Illegal for whites to marry blacks or Indians, whether free or not. Also made it difficult for masters to free their black slaves and for free blacks to remain in colony. Included a provision that made it lawful to "kill and distroy by gun or any otherwaise whatsoever" enslaved blacks or mulattoes who unlawfully absented themselves from the service of their masters. Also noted that any white man or woman who intermarried with a black, mulatto or Native American were to be banished. A white free woman who gave birth to a black or mulatto child was ordered to pay 15 pounds sterling within one month after child was born to church wardens. Such a child was ordered to be bound out as a servant by the church until he or she reached age 30. The mother's punishment was to be sold as a servant by church wardens for five years. In addition, the statute noted that no black or mulatto could be set free by any person unless such person paid for their transportation out of the country within six months after setting them free and paying ten pound sterling to church wardens.
Manumission 1691 Statute To limit the increase of free blacks manumissions required special legislative acts.
Penal Code 1692 Statute This law marked the first time that Virginia legislators detailed the procedure for an enslaved black brought to trial for a capital offense. A black had a trial in a court of oyer and terminer, which translated as "to hear and determine." Four of a county's justices of the peace heard the trial and decided the fate of the enslaved person charged with a crime. Blacks were denied jury trials, a right reserved for white men and women only. Statute also declared that enslaved blacks were prohibited from owning horses, cattle and hogs.
Duty 1699 Statute A duty of 20 shillings was placed on each imported black servant. The revenue was used to rebuild government buildings.
Penal Code 1699 Statute An enslaved black who stole a hog was to be tried in court and if found guilty would receive 39 lashes. If convicted of a second offense would be ordered to have both ears nailed to a pillory for two hours and then cut off. Any black, mulatto or Native American who gave false testimony in the trial of any slave for hog stealing would receive the same corporal punishment as the convicted slave.
Runaways 1701 Statute Legislators offered a reward for anyone who killed Billy, a notorious runaway slave, accused of destroying crops and robbery.
Property rights 1705 Statute Prior to this statute, enslaved blacks were regarded as chattel, like livestock. The new law made enslaved blacks real estate and chattel that could be used for paying a debt.
Penal Code 1705 Statute An enslaved black could not be a witness or call other enslaved persons as witnesses.
Military service 1705 Statute Enslaved blacks were not to serve in the militia. Act did not restrict the participation of free black men in the militia.
Racial status 1705 Statute This statute contains the first definition of a mulatto in Virginia laws. Child of a Native American and the child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a black was deemed a mulatto.
Duty 1705 Statute A sum of 20 shillings was due for every black imported into Virginia.
Freedom of movement 1705 Statute An enslaved black could not leave his plantation unless he had a certificate describing the circumstances of his absence. If a black resisted arrest, he could be killed, and his killer would not be prosecuted. Parish ministers were required to read this law every six months; failure to do so resulted in a fine of 600 pounds of tobacco. If a slave ran away a second time, an R was branded on his cheek.
Penal Code 1705 Statute More than five enslaved blacks meeting together "to make insurrection" were guilty of a felony and were executed without benefit of clergy. A black who killed another black was executed with a minister present. A conviction of burglary brought the dealty penalty without attendance of clergy.
Commerce 1705 Statute Whites who traded with enslaved blacks were jailed for one month, and any goods the black had obtained were confiscated and sold. If an enslaved person traded with whites with his master's permission, the master was fined ten pounds.
Slavery legalized 1705 Statute All imported servants were to remain in lifelong servitude with the exception of those who had been Christians in their native country or had been free in a Christian country. Law limited slavery to blacks.
Slave status 1706 Statute Baptism did not alter the status of enslaved persons.
Penal Code 1732 Statute Prohibited enslaved blacks from giving testimony except in the case of another black in a capital offense. If an enslaved person was suspected of lying in court, he received 39 lashes and his ears were nailed to the pillory.
Duty 1732 Statute A five percent duty was placed on imported blacks for four years.
Duty 1740 Statute The duty on imported enslaved blacks was increased five percent to raise and transport troops. Law was extended in 1745, 1755, 1757, and 1759. These duties became so high that some plantation owners traveled to Maryland and North Carolina to procure workers more cheaply.
Penal Code 1744 Statute "Any free Negro, mulatto or Indian being a Christian" was allowed as a witness in both civil and criminal suits against any black, mulatto or Native American, slave or free.
Property rights 1748 Statute Enslaved persons became the personal estate of their owners and were no longer considered as real estate.
Slave trade 1772 Statute The colony passed 33 acts against the importation of blacks, but all were vetoed by the English Crown.
Runaways 1775 Statute Allowed sale, banishment or execution of blacks caught attempting to flee. Law was enforced in 1776 when four runaways were hanged and 25 others were sold to the West Indies.
Penal Code 1778 Statute "Governor was empowered to direct Justices of each county to be empowered to try, condemn and execute or otherwise punish or acquit all slaves committing capital crimes in their county." Signed by Governor Patrick Henry.
Manumission 1782 Statute Removed restrictions on voluntary manumissions. Law was repealed five years later.
Manumission 1783 Statute Gave freedom to enslaved blacks who had served in the Continental Army with the consent of their masters.
Anti-emancipation 1784-1785 Petition Five pro-slavery petitions signed by 1,244 persons and presented to the state legislature asserted that emancipation was "exceedingly impolitic" because it would produce "Want, Poverty, Distress and Ruin to the Free Citizen." They also appealed to property rights proclaiming that slavery was best for blacks, pointed to Biblical precedent, and warned of "the Horrors of all the Rapes, Murders, and Outrages, which a vast Multitude of unprincipled, unpropertied, revengeful, and remorseless Banditti are capable of perpetrating."
Penal Code 1788 Statute Defined the malicious killing of an enslaved black as murder subject to the same penalty imposed upon the murderer of a freeman.
Property rights 1792 Statute Sheriffs and tax collectors prohibited from seizing enslaved persons from property owners if other assets available. Liable to action of the grieved party. Damages awarded not to exceed $7.
Ownership 1792 Statute No black, mulatto, or Native Americans could purchase any white servant.
Runaways 1792 Statute Detailed method of capturing runaway servants or slaves and conveying them to prison or to their owners. Jailors' fees for committing, maintaining and releasing runaways noted.
Slave Code 1792 Statute The 1792 slave code contained 53 acts that covered the importation of blacks, freedom of movement among those enslaved, prohibitions against bearing arms, punishments for rebellious behavior, unlawful assembly, trading with blacks, attacks on whites by a black, punishment for attempted rape of a white woman (castration), procedures for capturing runaways, prohibitions against enslaved blacks administering medicines, legal counsel for blacks accused of criminal offenses, perjury punishable by cutting off the offender's ears plus 39 lashes, provisions for emancipation, and prohibited ship masters from transporting enslaved persons out of state without masters' consent. Code also defined a mulatto as a person with one quarter black blood.
Property rights 1793 Statute No sheriff or other officer could seize enslaved persons unless the debt and costs owed amounted to $33 or over 2,000 pounds of tobacco, provided other goods were available to cover debt.
Free blacks 1793 Statute Unlawful for any free black or mulatto to migrate into Virginia. Such persons would be exported to their last place of residence. Ship captains responsible for bringing free blacks into the state to be fined 100 pounds. Enslaved blacks brought from Africa or West Indies to be transported out of commonwealth, with expense charged to the person who imported such slaves.
Property rights 1795 Statute Widows were entitled to one third part of her husband's slave property although emancipated by her deceased husband's will.
Penal Code 1795 Statute Persons convicted of forging documents whereby enslaved persons might pass as free were to be fined $200 and imprisoned for 1 year without bail.
Penal Code 1795 Statute Lawful for any person who believed himself or herself to be illegally enslaved to file a complaint to the county court. Petitioner to be assigned counsel. Persons found aiding in the prosecution of cases that failed to establish a claim to freedom fined $100.
Transporting enslaved 1796 Statute Virginia residents allowed to take enslaved persons out of state and bring them back without penalty. These individuals were not entitled to freedom.
Rebellion 1798 Statute Free persons convicted of exciting enslaved persons to insurrection or murder, to be executed. Free persons convicted of harboring slaves to pay a fine of $10. If unable to pay, offender to receive 39 lashes.
Penal Code 1798 Statute Members of abolitionist societies disqualified to serve as jurors in suits for an enslaved black's freedom.
Free blacks 1798 Statute Free blacks or mulattoes who gave copies of their freedom registration to enslaved blacks were to be charged with a felony.
Transporting enslaved 1798 Statute Ship masters prohibited from carrying enslaved persons out of the state without showing a certificate of freedom to the court clerk or written permission of a slave's owner. Penalty: $500 for each offense.
Commerce 1798 Statute Prohibited blacks or mulattoes from offering goods for sale.
Kidnapping 1799 Statute Persons guilty of stealing any enslaved black or mulatto to be executed. Proviso noted that when the state penitentiary house became ready to receive criminals, offenders would be sentenced 3 to 8 years.
Penal Code 1800 Statute Governor could order and commute a enslaved person's death sentence and direct that such person be sold and transported outside the U.S. Offender could also be ordered to work on a public works project. Free blacks sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary and could be employed by public works.
Penal Code 1801 Statute Enslaved black under sentence of death for conspiracy to be purchased and transported out of state. Convicted blacks who returned to Virginia to be apprehended and executed. Owners of all enslaved persons sold or transported to be compensated in the same manner as for executed offenders.
Hiring out 1801 Statute Enslaved blacks not permitted to hire themselves out. Owners of such slaves to be fined $40 for each offense.
Slave trade 1801 Statute Enslaved blacks brought into Virginia from outside the state to be apprehended and jailed. Such persons were to be transported out of the commonwealth at public expense.
Registry of enslaved/free blacks 1801 Statute Tax commissioners required to annually prepare a list of all free blacks and mulattoes within his district. Failure to do so resulted in a fine of $20. Free blacks who moved to another county without "honest employment" could be deemed and treated as a vagrant.
Transporting enslaved 1802 Statute Ship masters who permitted any enslaved black to board his vessel without the consent of his master to be fined $20. In cases where the skipper of a vessel was an enslaved black he would receive 39 lashes for every offense.
Commerce 1802 Statute Persons who bought or sold commodities from enslaved blacks on the Sabbath would pay $10 in addition to already established penalties.
Registry of enslaved 1804 Statute Widows who inherited enslaved blacks were required to register them with county clerk for a fee of $1.
Unlawful assembly 1804 Statute Any meeting of enslaved blacks in the night was considered an unlawful assembly. Punishment not to exceed 20 lashes.
Penal Code 1805 Statute Enslaved blacks convicted of attempting to "ravish" a white woman were guilty of a felony. No penalty listed.
Kidnapping 1805 Statute Persons found guilty of transporting blacks outside of Virginia or any county without the consent of their master was guilty of a misdemeanor. Fine: $100 to $500 plus two to five year prison sentence.
Education 1805 Statute Black or mulatto orphans not to be taught reading, writing or arithmetic.
Unlawful assembly 1805 Statute Unlawful meeting of enslaved blacks amended to not include religious worship with a slave's master, conducted by an ordained or licensed white minister.
Slave Code 1806 Statute Slave code amended. Enslaved blacks brought into the state and kept for one year would be sold and owners would forfeit their rights to such persons. Penalty: $400 for every black so bought, sold or hired. Owners of such persons who were convicted and executed for a capital crime would not be compensated. In addition, emancipated blacks who remained in state longer than 12 months would forfeit their freedom and be sold.
Transporting enslaved 1807 Statute Persons who left the state with the intention of returning had the right to travel with their enslaved blacks and bring them back. Furthermore, owners whose land extended across the boundary line of the state, had the right to work his blacks on each side. Inhabitants of other states had the right to travel with their enslaved blacks in Virginia and to use them to bring produce to any market.
Hiring out 1808 Statute Lawful duty of sheriffs and other citizens to apprehend and bring enslaved blacks before a magistrate who had hired himself out. Penalty for owners: $10 - $20.
Penal Code 1808 Statute Penalty on enslaved blacks who burned barns, stables or other house was death if the amount of damage was $10 or more. Blacks found guilty of burning crops were to be burned on the hand and to be whipped up to 39 lashes.
Free blacks 1815 Resolution Assembly passed a resolution asking the Federal government to find a place on the northern Pacific Coast where free blacks from Virginia could be settled.
Runaways 1817 Statute The objective of this act was to widen the geographic coverage of runaway laws. Higher rewards were offered to people who arrested Virginia runaways in Maryland or Kentucky. Enslaved blacks returned from New Jersey, New York, Ohio or Delaware brought even higher compensation.
Penal Code 1819 Statute Convicts and enslaved blacks to be separated from other prisoners. Windows and fireplaces or stoves to be provided.
Property rights 1819 Statute Enslaved blacks acquired by infants to descend as real estate.
Penal Code 1820 Statute Enslaved blacks accused of crimes to be tried in the county from which the offender was removed. Act also noted that it was lawful to hire out blacks and mulattoes for the payment of their taxes provided that none were hired for a sum less than 8 cents per day.
Free blacks 1820 Statute Overseers of poor to examine, every three months the condition of free blacks and mulattoes, and determine who were vagrants. Free blacks prohibited from trading with enslaved blacks.
Runaways 1822 Statute Runaway blacks confined in jail not to be sold without an order of the court.
Runaways 1823 Statute Persons who apprehended runaway blacks in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania or Indiana, and delivered blacks to their owner or a public jail within Virginia were entitled to a reward of $50 and 20 cents per mile for their travel. The reward for apprehending a runaway slave in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York or Vermont was $120.
Runaways 1823 Statute Runaway blacks in jail to be furnished with "proper negro clothing or other necessaries." Cost to be paid by the slave owner.
Penal Code 1823 Statute Any enslaved black, free black or mulatto who assaulted a white person with the intention to kill to be judged guilty of a felony, and be punished by whipping. Free blacks or mulattoes to be transported and banished from the United States. Any convict who returned to the state would be executed.
Penal Code 1824 Statute Detailed how enslaved blacks condemned to be executed who escape and then are recaptured to be handled. Act also noted that it was unlawful for owners of a black of unsound mind, or aged or infirm to permit such a person to go at large without adequate provision for his or her support. A fine of $50 for each offense imposed.
Runaways 1824 Statute Unlawful to entice or persuade any enslaved black to run away or to harbor a runaway.. Search warrants allowed where runaway blacks were suspected of being harbored.
Penal code 1825 Statute Free blacks or mulattoes convicted of the rape of a white woman sentenced to be executed.
Emancipation 1826 Statute No black, age 21 or older, emancipated since May 1, 1806, to remain more than 1 year in the state without lawful permission.
Slave Code 1827 Statute Slave code amended to include provisions for dealing with ship masters who harbored runaways. An 1806 act that allowed emancipated blacks remaining in the state for more than 12 months to be sold into slavery was repealed unless ordered by a grand jury. Proceeds of such a sale would be paid into the state's literary fund.
Penal Code 1828 Statute Free blacks convicted of any offense where the punishment was stripes, transportation and sale, were instead to be sentenced to confinement in the public jail and penitentiary for a term between five and 18 years. Same act noted that slaves convicted of larceny were to be punished by a whipping of not more than 39 stripes.
Runaways 1829 Statute Persons assisting the escape of runaways were guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by confinement in jail between three and 12 months.
Penal Code 1829 Statute Enslaved blacks guilty of burning crops valued at more than $50 were to be executed without benefit of clergy. Slaves who received stolen goods would receive up to 39 lashes.
Unlawful assembly 1830 Statute Assemblage of blacks for the purpose of religious worship conducted by a black and assemblies with the purpose of educating enslaved blacks were considered unlawful.
Certification 1830 Statute Certificates to be obtained by persons removing enslaved blacks to Louisiana. Owners were required to take an oath stating that such persons were not guilty nor had been convicted of any crimes within their knowledge, and that the enslaved was of good moral character, not in the habit of running away.
Emancipation/Education 1831 Statute Free blacks and mulattoes remaining in the state contrary to law, to be sold. Act also prohibited meetings to teach free blacks to read or write. The penalty on white persons who offered such instruction was $50. White persons who taught enslaved blacks were to be fined between $10 and $100.
Alcohol 1831 Statute Tavern keepers or merchants who sold liquor to an enslaved black would have his license revoked.
Education 1832 Statute Illegal to teach enslaved blacks how to read and write. Fine of $10 to $100. Law was strictly enforced unlike earlier literacy laws.
Slave Code 1832 Statute Revised slave code included provisions that prohibited enslaved blacks or free blacks from conducting religious services. In addition, white ministers were prohibited from preaching to blacks at night without the written permission of owners, or if their owners were in attendance. The code also noted that free blacks were no longer allowed to acquire ownership of any black other than their husband, wife or children. Free blacks were prohibited from keeping weapons. Enslaved blacks and free blacks were prohibited from selling or dispensing liquor at any public assembly. The writing or printing of any material that supported insurrection was forbidden. Free blacks were to be tried, convicted and punished in the same manner as enslaved blacks were prosecuted.
Free blacks 1832 Statute Upon the request of Northampton County an act was passed that called for the removal of free blacks "in a manner as humane and as little oppressive as possible." A sum of $15,000 was borrowed which was to be reimbursed by an annual tax.
Alcohol 1832 Statute Unlawful to sell alcohol to any enslaved black without the written consent of their master. Penalty: $10 to $50.
Free blacks 1833 Statute Unlawful for a free person to bring a free black into the state. Penalty: six month jail sentence and fine up to $100. Did not apply to free blacks who were traveling as servants.
Transporting enslaved 1836 Statute Railroad companies that transported enslaved blacks without the authorization of the slave owner was liable to the owner for the value of the enslaved person.
Patrols 1839 Statute Patrols had the right to force open the doors of free blacks or of enslaved blacks when in search of firearms or other weapons.
Free blacks 1840 Statute Free blacks prohibited from migrating into Virginia. If apprehended required to post bond and leave state within 10 days.
Property rights 1840 Statute Enslaved blacks not to be sold without the debtor's consent where there are other goods or chattel sufficient to cover the debt.
Insanity 1845 Statute No insane enslaved person to be retained in any asylum so as to exclude any white person residing in state. Enslaved black to be sent to jail or back to his master if necessary to make room for a white patient.
Kidnapping 1847 Statute Any person who kidnapped another person with intent to enslave him confined in the penitentiary between three and 10 years.
Miscegenation 1847 Statute Any white person who intermarried with a black to be confined in jail up to one year and fined up to $100. Person who performed ceremony fined $200.
Free blacks 1847 Statute Free blacks charged with a misdemeanor may be punished in the same way as an enslaved black for the same offense.
Penal Code 1847 Statute Noted how enslaved blacks were to be tried for felonies. Owners of slaves condemned to death would be compensated for their value.
Runaways 1847 Statute Search warrants to be issued in the search for runaways. If a runaway was apprehended he was to be returned to his owner or committed to jail.
Penal Code 1847 Statute Enslaved blacks to be punished by whipping for the following crimes: menacing gestures or language to a white person, keeping or carrying weapons, rioting, unlawful assembly or making seditious speeches, preparing or administering medicine. Punishment not to exceed 39 lashes.
Unlawful assembly 1847 Statute Enslaved blacks prohibited from gathering with other blacks for more than four hours at a time.
Rebellion 1848 Statute Provided the death penalty for advising or conspiring with an enslaved black to rebel.
Slave Code 1849 Statute In response to growth of abolition movement in the North, the code provided a fine and imprisonment for individuals who proclaimed "that owners have no right of property in their slaves." In addition, code defined mulattoes as persons with one quarter part or more black blood. The word "negro" was construed to mean mulattoes as well as blacks.
Re-enslavement 1851 Constitution Provided that emancipated blacks would be enslaved again if they did not leave the state within 12 months.
Gaming 1852 Statute Prohibited white persons from gaming with blacks, and was considered a felony.
Property 1852 Statute District commissioners ordered to track the number of enslaved blacks hired by incorporated companies and the aggregate value of such personal property.
Drugs 1855 Statute The sale of any poisonous drugs to an enslaved or free black was prohibited without the written permission of the owner or master. Penalty: $500.
Runaways 1855 Statute Persons who arrested a runaway was entitled to a reward of $5 within 50 miles of his residence, more than 50 miles, $10; if outside the state, $20. Mileage was to be reimbursed at a rate of 10 cents for each mile. The reward for arresting blacks in certain counties and in non-slaveholding states was higher.
Runaways 1855 Statute A trio of statues designed to prevent the escape of enslaved blacks. Included an inspection system for all boats leaving Virginia ports, and increased the penalties for helping blacks escape, including the requirement of a public whipping and a penitentiary sentence for free people and sale out of the state for an enslaved person. Act also increased the reward for arresting runaways.
Voluntary en-slavement 1856 Statute Blacks given the right to enslave themselves, by petition to the legislature, to a master of their choosing. A master would pay the court one half the valuation of the black.
Emancipation 1856 Statute Any person may emancipate any of his blacks by last will in writing or deed. All those emancipated were liable for any debt by the person emancipating them, before such emancipation would take effect.
Kidnapping 1857 Statute A free person found guilty of taking an enslaved black without the consent of his owner to be sentenced to the penitentiary for between 5 and 20 years. If black not recovered, offender liable to pay slave owner twice the value of the enslaved.
Free blacks 1858 Statute A free black could not acquire an enslaved black except "by descent."
Free blacks 1860 Statute Provided for sale into "absolute slavery" of free blacks convicted of offenses punishable by confinement in the penitentiary.
Racial status 1860 Statute Every person having one quarter or more or black blood was deemed a "colored person."
Emancipation 1860 Constitution Emancipated blacks would forfeit their freedom by remaining in the state more than 12 months. Furthermore, the general assembly would not emancipate any enslaved person, or the descendant of any such person.
Registration 1860 Constitution Called for the annual registration of births and deaths among the black population differentiating between the number of free and enslaved blacks..
Property 1860 Constitution Every enslaved black age 12 years and older to be assessed with a tax equal to and not exceeding that assessed on land of the value of $300. Blacks under the age of 12 not to be taxed.
Property rights 1860 Statute A widow was entitled to her share of the blacks belonging to her husband at the time of his death, even though they had been set free by his will.
Enslavement outlawed 1865 Constitution Enslavement and involuntary servitude outlawed.
Enslavement outlawed 1865 Statute Certain acts relating to enslavement repealed.
Children of enslaved 1872 Constitution Children of enslaved parents entitled to inheritance as though their parents had been legally married.
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