January 1669

Virginia statute declared it was not a felony for an enslaver to kill an enslaved person 'in correction,' reasoning no one would intentionally destroy their own property. This gave enslavers legal impunity for lethal violence. The law codified that enslaved lives had no protection under criminal law, making terror a legally sanctioned tool of control.

John Locke, later celebrated as a philosopher of liberty and natural rights, drafted the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina in 1669 for the Lords Proprietors. Article 110 stated: 'Every Freeman of Carolina shall have absolute Power and Authority over his Negro Slaves.' Locke was also a direct investor in the Royal African Company. His authorship of a foundational slavery document while developing his theories of natural rights illustrates the philosophical contradictions at the heart of Enlightenment liberalism — and the degree to which 'freedom' was constructed as a racial category from its inception in Anglo-American thought.