Maryland 1671 Act: Baptism Does Not Free the Enslaved

Maryland's 1671 law, following Virginia's 1667 precedent, declared that the baptism of enslaved people as Christians did not grant them freedom. The law addressed slaveholder reluctance to allow their enslaved workers to be baptized, reassuring them that religious conversion would not legally complicate their property claims. It reflected the colonies' systematic effort to sever Christianity from liberty and entrench permanent hereditary enslavement.