These questions, and the answers; are complicated. Va. does not in fact enact any laws creating slavery until 1660-61 and until 1690 or so it does not have a "slave code." You can find the texts of most of the important slave laws for Va in my book, The Law of Freedom and Bondage: A Casebook. it is out of print but a good law library ought to have it. Other colonies follow Va`s lead, some with statutes some by custom. The Dutch have slavery in the New Netherland (no "s" on the end of that, by the way) in the 1620s or 1630s. You might look at Alan Watson, Slave Law in the Americas for the Dutch period; it is a start; and look at A. Leon Higginbotham`s In The Matter of Color for a survey of most colonial laws.
----
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
518-445-3386 (p)
518-445-3363 (f)
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www.paulfinkelman.com
--- On Fri, 11/21/08, Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [VA-HIST] Slave Laws
To: "Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history" <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:04 PM
I am creating a webpage as an overview to slavery, that will eventually include
links to more information. For now, I'm reading books for the information,
but am having a problem. All that I am using are focused on Virginia and the
south. In Virginia, slaves laws were enacted starting in 1640. But when did the
northern colonies enact slave laws? Or did they, before the country was united
under the constitution? In short, did Ben Franklin buy "slaves" that
he merely replaced when they ran away, or were they just Africans servants that
he bought.
When or did the northern colonies follow Virginia's lead in making Africans
slaves for life?
Anne
Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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