January 1667

Virginia's Act III of 1667 explicitly declared that Christian baptism did not confer freedom on enslaved people. Colonists had previously hesitated to enslave fellow Christians. This law severed the last religious argument for manumission, closing a path to freedom and removing any incentive for enslavers to allow religious conversion.

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.