March 1660/61 (1661 by modern year numbering)
LegislationBook sources
Virginia increases penalties for English servants escaping with Black people
Colonial Virginia
Virginia enacted an additional-service penalty for English servants who escaped with Black people whose service could not be extended. The English escapees had to serve for their companions’ absence as well as their own.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The statute distinguishes extendable service from bondage that could not be lengthened. It penalizes cooperation in escape; it does not declare every English escapee enslaved for life or create hereditary slavery by itself.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 31; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Virginia, “English running away with negroes,” March 1660/61; Hening 2:26 ↗