Winthrop Jordan's White Over Black is surely one of the most important
works that touches on this subject. Also see the more recent book by
Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs. And
finally, some references to early Eastern Shore records on the subject can
be found in my Race and Class in Colonial Virginia.

As Brown notes, it was surely being discussed as an issue that needed
attention by the 1650s, and most practice in that decade probably
conformed to the official resolution of one facet (what to do with the
children of slave mothers that were fathered by free men?) in the 1662
statute that declared the status of said children would follow that of the
mother.

Douglas Deal
Professor of History (on leave 2002-2003)
State University of New York at Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126
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