1600s
1600–1699Slavery is codified in colonial law as the first Africans arrive at Point Comfort.
Zoom in — decades
Key events
- August 20, 1619· debated"20 and odd" Africans arrive at Point Comfort
An English privateer trades roughly two dozen captive Angolans to Virginia colonists at Old Point Comfort — a foundational moment whose exact legal status (enslaved vs. indentured) historians still debate.
- December 1662Virginia makes slavery hereditary
Virginia law declares that a child's status follows the mother, making slavery inheritable and permanent.
- July 9, 1640John Punch sentenced to lifetime servitude
A Virginia court sentences John Punch to servitude for life — an early legal step toward race-based slavery.
- December 10, 1641Massachusetts legalizes slavery
The Massachusetts Body of Liberties makes it the first English colony to give slavery legal sanction.
- September 20, 1664Maryland makes slavery hereditary
Maryland decrees lifelong, inheritable slavery and penalizes interracial marriage.
- September 19, 1676Bacon's Rebellion
An interracial uprising whose aftermath pushed Virginia toward hardened, race-based slavery.
- February 18, 1688The Germantown Quaker Petition
Four Germantown Quakers write the first formal protest against slavery in the English colonies — an early seed of abolition.
- April 16, 1691Virginia hardens the racial caste
Virginia bars manumission and interracial marriage, sharpening the line between white and Black.
- September 1663· debatedGloucester County servant conspiracy
One of the earliest recorded plots by enslaved and indentured laborers in colonial Virginia.
Resources from this period
Websites·2
How the federal government frames the 1619 Point Comfort arrival.
The first written protest against slavery in the English colonies.