1692

Virginia's 1692 act established special county courts to try enslaved people accused of capital crimes, without juries and with expedited procedures. Enslaved defendants were denied the procedural protections available to free persons. The courts could condemn enslaved people to death, with the colony compensating slaveholders for the 'loss of property.' This legal infrastructure institutionalized the treatment of enslaved people as property in criminal proceedings while creating mechanisms for violent suppression of resistance.

Maryland enacted a comprehensive slave code in 1692 consolidating and extending earlier laws. The code restricted enslaved people's movement, prohibited assembly, regulated the lives of free Black people, and codified punishments for various acts of resistance. It also established clearer procedures for the return of runaways and penalties for those who assisted escapees. The 1692 code was part of a colony-wide consolidation of racial slavery law in the aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion across the Chesapeake.