April 1691
Virginia punishes interracial marriage and suppresses escape
Virginia; Black, Indigenous and mixed-ancestry people
Virginia’s April 1691 act authorized armed pursuit of people escaping slavery and killing when they resisted or refused surrender under that process. It banished free white people who married Black, mixed-ancestry or Indigenous partners, whether those partners were bound or free. It also required people granting emancipation to pay for the freed person’s removal from the colony.
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 pursuit provisions required legal authorization. The marriage penalty fell on the free white spouse; the removal requirement burdened the person freeing someone. The statute joined control of labor, family formation and free Black presence.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 31; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Virginia, April 1691, “An act for suppressing outlying slaves”; Hening 3:86–88 ↗