Virginia Law Declares Baptism Does Not Confer Freedom on Enslaved People

Virginia's 1667 Act declared that the baptism of enslaved people as Christians did not entitle them to freedom. This law directly closed a loophole some enslaved people had used to petition for freedom on religious grounds, and severed the English common-law tradition linking Christian status to certain rights. It was part of a systematic legislative effort to make slavery absolute and hereditary, removing any pathway to freedom short of a slaveholder's decision.