Virginia 1668 Act: Free Black Women Remain Taxable as Laborers

Virginia's 1668 Act declared that free Black women, even if freed from slavery, remained subject to taxation as laborers — unlike free white women who were exempt. The law stated that 'negroe women, though permitted to enjoy their freedome' should still 'ought not in all respects to be admitted to a full fruition of the exemptions and impunities of the English.' This codified the principle that even freedom did not grant Black people the full legal status of white colonists, creating a permanent legal second-class status for free Black people.