Africans soon are put to work on tobacco plantations. A Virginia court decides that a child born to a slave mother is also a slave. The General Assembly declares imported servants who were not Christians in their native lands slaves, and all negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves property. Massachusetts becomes the first colony to recognize slavery as a legal institution. Many stay in South Carolina to work on rice plantations.
Fires break out in New York City, which has the second-largest urban population of blacks.
Numerous blacks are accused and executed in a witch-hunt atmosphere. Georgia is the last of the British North American colonies to legalize slavery.