The Slave Trade & Slave Status

In 1619, the first cargo ship bearing Africans to be sold as "bonded servants" arrives in Jamestown, Virginia... The newly chartered Dutch West India Company secures a monopoly on the slave trade for the Netherlands' American colonies in 1621... In 1662, the general assembly of Virginia decrees that children of African women and Englishmen will share their mothers¹ status, in effect allowing for the breeding of slaves... Maryland determines in 1663 that all blacks brought into the colony are automatically slaves... The Quakers of Germantown, Pennsylvania, begin an antislavery resolution in 1688... In 1705, Virginia assigns blacks the status of real estate... The French colonists of New Orleans institute the Black Code in 1724, regulating slaves¹ behavior and requiring that they be baptized as Catholics...

Slavery and race play a significant role in the criminal justice system of the New World­a marked distinction from England, where there are no slaves. Areas with large concentrations of slaves or free blacks develop criminal justice practices that relate directly to the demographic and power relationships associated with slavery. These practices are different from and more repressive than those for whites. In the American South especially, criminal justice focuses on controlling and policing slaves. Punishment­most often whipping­is usually administered in the home or on the plantation, rather than being decided in the courts.

"Charlestown July 24, 1769, "To Be Sold …" Broadside, courtesy American Antiquarian Society