1680

Virginia restricts enslaved people’s movement

Virginia; enslaved people

Virginia’s June 1680 act prohibited enslaved people from carrying weapons or leaving their enslaver’s premises without a certificate for necessary occasions. It imposed whipping for unauthorized movement and for opposing a Christian, and authorized killing in specified cases of concealed fugitives who injured inhabitants and resisted capture.

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 act’s preamble targeted gatherings for feasts and burials. Its provisions concern enslaved people; they do not establish an unrestricted power to kill any person who traveled without permission.

Sources

• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 32; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
• Virginia, 8 June 1680, “An act for preventing Negroes Insurrections”; Hening 2:481–482 ↗

Suggest a correction or send feedback about this event