The Virginia Slave Code (1662)

• What law related to enslaved people was passed in Virginia in 1662?

  The partus sequitur ventrem law.
• What did the partus sequitur ventrem law state?


  A child's social status would follow the status of the mother, not the father.
• Under the partus sequitur ventrem law, what happens if a child is born to a mixed-race couple?

  The child would inherit the enslaved status of the mother, regardless of the father's race.
• What previous legal principle did the partus sequitur ventrem law overturn?


  English common law, which stated that a child inherited the social status of the father.
• What was happening in other American colonies around the time Virginia passed the partus sequitur ventrem law? 


  Several other American colonies began to legalize slavery.