Colonial Assemblies Tighten Slave Codes Amid Fears of Insurrection

Throughout the 1760s, colonial assemblies in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland responded to periodic rumors of conspiracy and outright revolt by tightening slave codes. New restrictions limited enslaved people's ability to gather, travel without passes, or learn to read. South Carolina's code, already among the harshest, added provisions after uprisings in the Sea Islands. These legislative responses, occurring amid colonists' own protests against British 'tyranny,' made the contra