Slave Code Strengthened in Virginia

February 11, 1712

After the New York revolt and growing Afro-American populations along the Chesapeake, Virginia's House of Burgesses passed new laws codifying lifetime, inheritable bondage for Africans. Manumission was made harder, marriage across color lines criminal. Chattel slavery, as a legal institution, was reaching its grim adult shape. These statutes became templates for slave codes across the southern colonies, hardening racial hierarchy into written law.