page_title: History of slavery
section_title: Slavery in American colonial law
hierarchical_section_title: History of slavery / Americas / United States / Slavery in American colonial law
caption_attribution_description: English: Well-dressed plantation owner and family visiting the slave quarters.
context_page_description: The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. However, the social, economic, and legal positions of slaves have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places.
  Slavery occurs relatively rarely among hunter-gatherer populations because it develops under conditions of social stratification. Slavery operated in the first civilizations. Slavery features in the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi, which refers to it as an established institution.
  Slavery was widespread in the ancient world found in almost every other ancient civilization such as the Roman Empire. It became less common throughout Europe during the Early Middle Ages, although it continued to be practice in some areas. The Byzantine–Ottoman wars and the Ottoman wars in Europe resulted in the capture of large numbers of Christian slaves. The Arab slave trade encompassed mainly Western and Central Asia, Northern and Eastern Africa, India, and Europe from the 7th to the 20th century.
context_section_description: 1640: Virginia courts sentence John Punch to lifetime slavery, marking the earliest legal sanctioning of slavery in English colonies.
  1641: Massachusetts legalizes slavery.
  1650: Connecticut legalizes slavery.
  1652: Rhode Island bans the enslavement or forced servitude of any white or negro for more than ten years or beyond the age of 24.
  1654: Virginia sanctions "the right of Negros to own slaves of their own race" after African Anthony Johnson, former indentured servant, sued to have fellow African John Casor declared not an indentured servant but "slave for life."
  1661: Virginia officially recognizes slavery by statute.
  1662: A Virginia statute declares that children born would have the same status as their mother.
  1663: Maryland legalizes slavery.
  1664: Slavery is legalized in New York and New Jersey.
  1670: Carolina (later, South Carolina and North Carolina) is founded mainly by planters from the overpopulated British sugar island colony of Barbados, who brought relatively large numbers of African slaves from that island.
  1676: Rhode Island bans the enslavement of Native Americans.
caption: Well-dressed plantation owner and family visiting the slave quarters.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.35"}