1669
LegislationSupplement
Virginia shields enslavers after killings during punishment
Virginia; enslaved people
Virginia’s October 1669 act shielded an enslaver, or someone acting on the enslaver’s orders, from felony liability when an enslaved person resisted punishment and died under its severity. The statute treated the enslaver’s property interest as a reason to presume the absence of premeditated malice.
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 exemption concerns death during resisted correction. It must not be expanded into a rule that every killing of an enslaved person was lawful.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2, p. 32; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Virginia, October 1669, Act I, “casuall killing of slaves”; Hening 2:270 ↗