I was out of town yesterday when the subject of slavery came up again, but
had I been here, I would have pointed out, as Margie Young-Taylor finally
did, that the color of a person's skin was irrelevant to his or her status
as slave or free. If his or her mother had been held in slavery, he or she
was born into slavery. The 1806 law that required freed slaves to leave the
state unless permission was obtained from the legislature to remain (later
amended to allow county courts to grant such permissions) was simply to rid
the state of freed slaves, who were not deemed on the whole to be a
wholesome presence in a slave society.

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
[log in to unmask]

Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us
<http://www.lva.lib.va.us>

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html