September 1667
LegislationSupplement
Baptism no longer offers a claim to freedom
Virginia; enslaved Africans and their descendants
Virginia declared that Christian baptism did not change bondage. The act removed a possible religious argument for emancipation and made Christian conversion compatible with continued enslavement.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
A step in hardening hereditary slavery; Christianity and racial classification were not interchangeable categories.