Colonial Laws

Compiled by E.I. See

Maryland law was based on British common law. Laws were established to promote religious tolerance. There were also laws that separated the interests of the Church from the interests of the government. Maryland was unique in establishing a court system that relied heavily on the power of jurors, requiring a 12 person jury who had the power to decide both the verdict of a case and the judgment.

Maryland

1639: The first law to exclude "Negroes" from normal protections by the

government was enacted. 1667: Christian baptisms would no longer affect the bondage of blacks or Indians,

preventing enslaved workers from improving their legal status by changing their religion.

1682: A law establishing the racial distinction between servants and slaves was enacted.

1691: Virginia law declares that any white man or woman who married a "Negro, mulatto, or Indian" would be banished from the colony forever.

1705: First Slave Codes enacted:

"All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened."

- Virginia General Assembly, 1705

Virginia

1715: first slave codes enacted – required

enslaved people to obtain a ticket before leaving the plantation of their master, banned slaves from assembling, and allowed for severe punishment of those who attempted to escape

1741: stricter slave codes enacted – prevented enslaved people from owning livestock or guns (even for hunting), limited the ability of enslaved people to be granted freedom, allowed those who attempted to escape to be killed

North Carolina

Many New England colonies had laws that reserved land for schools and churches when new towns and cities were established. Many laws in New England were based on the Christian Bible.

New England

The land laws of colonial New York were based on manorialism. This system gave economic power to those who owned land. This served to benefit the merchant class that owned businesses on the island of Manhattan near what was later to become Wall Street.

New York

The Merchant’s Exchange, New York

City

"Colonial Laws." Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 10 Jan. 2013.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h315.html>. "THE COMMON LAW IN COLONIAL AMERICA: VOLUME I: THE CHESAPEAKE

AND NEW ENGLAND." University of Maryland. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/nelson0209.htm>. Reviewed by George W. Liebmann, Liebmann and Shively, P.A. of Baltimore and Visting Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

"Maryland Slave Law (1664)." University of Tennessee. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://web.utk.edu/~mfitzge1/docs/374/MDlaw.pdf>. Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland (September 1664).

"The Merchant's Exchange." Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://quest.eb.com/images/309_2915323>. Illustration

"Property Law in Colonial New York." Wikipedia., Web. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_Law_in_Colonial_New_York>.

References