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The enactment of the Slave Codes is considered to be the consolidation of slavery in Virginia, and served as the foundation of Virginia's slave legislation. [1] All servants from non-Christian lands became slaves. [2] There were forty one parts of this code each defining a different part and law surrounding the slavery in Virginia.
The principle became incorporated into state law when Virginia gained independence from Great Britain. [38] Additional laws regarding slavery were passed in the seventeenth century and in 1705 were codified into Virginia's first slave code, [37] An act concerning Servants and Slaves.
Moreover, in the Upland South, some slaveholders freed their slaves after the Revolution through manumission. The population of free black men and free black women rose from less than 1% in 1780 to more than 10% in 1810, when 7.2% of Virginia's population was free black people, and 75% of Delaware's black population was free. [18]
However, beginning in the 1660s the Virginia legislature repeatedly passed laws that confirmed that conversion to Christianity did not change a slave's hereditary status. [ 6 ] Although slaves sought to gain freedom after converting to Christianity, slave-holders and colonial officials did not share the same opinion.
Enforcement of these laws became one of the controversies which arose between slave and free states. Slavery, in what would become the United States, was established as part of European colonization. By the 18th century, slavery was legal throughout the Thirteen Colonies, after which rebel colonies started to abolish the practice.
At the start of the American Civil War in 1861, there were 34 states in the United States, 15 of which were slave states, all of which had slave codes. The 19 free states did not have slave codes, although they still had laws regarding slavery and enslaved people, covering such issues as how to handle slaves from slave states, whether they were ...
Gabriel's Rebellion was a planned slave rebellion in the Richmond, Virginia, area in the summer of 1800. Information regarding the revolt was leaked before its execution, and Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith who planned the event, and twenty-five of his followers were hanged .
The new government of Virginia repealed the laws in 1782, and declared freedom for slaves who had fought for the colonies during the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783. [citation needed] Another law passed in 1782 permitted masters to free their slaves of their own accord. Previously, a manumission had required obtaining consent from the ...