Slavery in Colonial America: Origins, Codes, and Daily Life

Introduction: The Origins of American Slavery

Slavery in the United States lasted as an endorsed institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. In 1619, twenty Africans were brought by a Dutch soldier and sold to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, as indentured servants.

This would be the first of many such arrivals up and down the American eastern seaboard. At this time, most slaves were being purchased by white men, though some Native Americans and free blacks were also enslaved. Slavery spread to areas with high-quality soil suitable for large plantations growing important crops such as cotton, sugar, coffee, and most prominently tobacco. Even though the sanctioned practice of enslaving blacks occurred in all of the original thirteen colonies, more than half of all African Americans lived in Virginia and Maryland. The three largest North American zones of importation throughout most of the eighteenth century were Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, with Virginia being the largest of the continental slave societies.

The African slave trade reached its peak in 1734, when approximately 70,000 slaves were imported into North America.

Legal Foundations: From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery

The transformation from indentured servitude to racial slavery happened gradually. It was not until 1661 that the concept of slavery entered Virginia law. Virginia set itself apart from the other colonies by legally distinguishing Africans from white men.

Early Virginia census reports bluntly distinguished "Negros," often listing them with no personal names. It is thought that this was done to humiliate these men and women and to lower their status relative to Englishmen. Slaves were increasingly defined as people without rights; and because they were viewed as property, they were considered to enhance their owners' independence. Many of these men and women served life terms, with their children inheriting the same condition.

The Slave Codes of 1705 sealed the fate of Africans in Virginia to a life of slavery. These laws were designed to prohibit slaves from receiving wages, learning to read, owning property, or marrying legally. Additionally, slaves could not vote or possess firearms. The codes imposed harsh physical punishments because enslaved persons, owning no property, could not be required to pay fines. While states could pass whatever laws they deemed necessary, enforcement was an entirely different matter.

The Slave Codes of 1705

The enforcement of slave laws typically fell to the slave owner. If a slaveholder chose to educate his slaves or allow them to marry, he could do so in spite of the state's statutory prohibitions. It was the master's rule, not the law of the land, that governed daily life. States did little to implement the slave codes in practice. The codes also required that slaves obtain written permission to leave their plantation. If a slave were found guilty of murder or rape, he or she would be hanged; for robbery or any other major offense, the penalty was sixty lashes. For minor offenses, such as associating with whites, slaves would be whipped, branded, or maimed.

For the eighteenth-century slave in Virginia, disputes with a master could previously be brought before a court for judgment, but the Slave Codes of 1705 eliminated that recourse. A slave owner who wished to break the most defiant of slaves could now do so knowing that any punishment he inflicted — including death — would not result in even the slightest reprimand.

Although the punishments were severe, slaves demonstrated that they possessed wills of their own and were conscious, coherent human beings.