At Jamestown, Virginia, approximately 20 captive Africans are sold into slavery in the British North American colonies.
Virginia enacts a law of hereditary slavery meaning that a child born to an enslaved mother inherits her slave status.
Rice cultivation is introduced into Carolina. Slave importation increases dramatically.
Massachusetts is the first colony to legalize slavery.
In Virginia, black slaves and black and white indentured servants band together to participate in Bacon's Rebellion.
The Virginia Slave Code codifies slave status, declaring all non-Christian servants entering the colony to be slaves. It defines all slaves as real estate, acquits masters who kill slaves during punishment, forbids slaves and free colored peoples from physically assaulting white persons, and denies slaves the right to bear arms or move abroad without written permission.
