January 1671
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.
Quaker founder George Fox, visiting Barbados in 1671, addressed a meeting of Friends and called on Quaker slaveholders to treat their enslaved workers with Christian consideration and to free them after a period of service. Fox stopped short of demanding immediate abolition but planted an ideological seed: that Christian conscience had obligations toward enslaved people. His Barbados address was circulated among Quakers and contributed to the growing antislavery testimony that would produce the Germantown Petition of 1688 and later abolitionist movements.
Events
- 1671George Fox Calls on Quakers to Treat Enslaved People Humanely and Eventually Free Them (1671)
Quaker founder George Fox, visiting Barbados in 1671, addressed a meeting of Friends and called on Quaker slaveholders to treat their enslaved workers with Christian consideration and to free them after a period of service. Fox stopped short of demanding immediate abolition but planted an ideological seed: that Christian conscience had obligations toward enslaved people. His Barbados address was circulated among Quakers and contributed to the growing antislavery testimony that would produce the Germantown Petition of 1688 and later abolitionist movements.
- 1671Maryland 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.