Back to Topics
I. The development of slavery and racism:
B. The British Colonies in the 1600s
2. The first Navigation Act was passed in the early 1650s leading to lower tobacco prices. 3. In 1662, British government granted monopoly to Royal African
Slave Company initiating a policy to bring slaves in, replacing the shortage
of indentured servants and lower the coses of producing tobacco, rice,
indigo, and other colonial staple crops.
(2) Laws were passed stating that the status of a child (slave or free) followed the mother. (Most interracial sexual unions were white male/ black female). (3) African slaves could not own property, could not testify in court, and could not attend school (2) Blacks were not Christians, Europeans fearful of the differences
between them and Africans regarded the latter as savage and uncivilized.
Maintaining homogamy was easier in the past, before romantic love emerged as a major criterion of mate selection-- an attribute of modern industrial society. The move from large extended families and tribal/clan networks to small nuclear families reduced the direct influence of the parents in the selection of mates (matchmaking) as a means of establishing alliances between families. Romantic love has the potential of cutting across all barriers-- race, ethnic, religious, and social class boundaries. To counter this, many states passed various laws, including the notorious "racial integrity" laws. (No doubt racism and the type of racist sentiments we read about in Gould's book also played a very powerful role in this).
Penalty: "double the fines of a former act" (In 1657, ACT XIV was passed imposing a fine of 500 pounds of tobacco (or whipping) for fornication. 1691 Racial intermarriage between whites, (bond or free) with a Negro, mulatto or Indian (bond or free) Penalty: banishment from Virginia forever 1705 Racial intermarriage between white christian and any of following; Negro, mulatto, Indian, Jew, Moor, Mohammedan or other infidel Penalty: All white (indentured) servants belonging to the white christian are to be set free 1705 Racial intermarriage between free white man or woman with a Negro Penalty: 6 months in prison without bail; fine of 10 pounds to the parish; ministers performing marriage fined 10,000 pounds of tobacco 1753 Racial intermarriage between a free English or white man or woman and a Negro or mulatto man or woman, bond or free Penalty: 6 months in prison without bail; fine of ten pounds to the parish 1792 Racial intermarriage between free white men and white women with Negroes or mulattoes bond or free Penalty: 6 months in prison; fine of $30.00 for the use of the parish; ministers who marry Negroes and whites fined $250.00 per marriage 1818 Leaving the state to avoid certain sections of the marriage law of 1792 Penalty: punishment to be the same as if the offense were committed in the Commonwealth [There were three additional laws passed in the 1800s-- 1848; 1878; 1879-- that have been omitted here]. 1932 Any white person intermarrying with a colored person or any colored person intermarrying with a white person Penalty: felony conviction; confinement in penitentiary from 1 to
5 years
1792 1/4 It is provided that every person other than a Negro, although all his other progenitors except that descending from the Negro shall have been white persons shall be deemed a mulatto; so every such person who shall have one-fourth part or more of Negro Blood, shall in like manner be deemed a mulatto. 1833 n/a A court upon satisfactory proof, by a white person of the fact, may grant to any free person of mixed blood a certificate that he is not a Negro, which certificate shall protect such person against the penalties and disabilities to which Negroes are subject. 1860 1/4 Every person who has one-fourth or more of Negro blood shall be deemed a mulatto, and the word Negro in any section shall be construed to mean mulatto as well as Negro. 1866 1/4 Every person having one-fourth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian. 1910 1/16 Every person having one-sixteenth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian. 1924 ANY The term 'white person' shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian, but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian, and no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed white persons.
1853 Every commissioner of the revenue shall make an annual registration of the births and deaths in his district. He shall record the date and place of every birth, the full name of the child, the sex and color, and if colored whether free or slave, the full name of the mother, and if the child be free and born in wedlock the full name, occupation and residence of the father, if the child be a slave, the name of the owner, etc. 1866 It shall be the duty of every minister celebrating a marriage and of the keeper of the records of any religious society which solemnizes marriages, by the consent of the parties in open congregation at once to make a record of every marriage between white persons, or between colored persons, stating in such record whether the persons are white or colored, and return a copy to the clerk of the county or corporation in which the marriage is solemnized. 1867 It having been represented to the assembly that the United States authorities have collected statistics exhibiting the marriages heretofore solemnized between colored persons which ought to be preserved, and the Assembly being solicitous to preserve evidences for legitimizing the offspring of such marriages, the governor is instructed to obtain from the United States authorities registers of marriages between persons and have copies deposited with clerks of courts. 1924 For the preservation of racial integrity, registration certificates shall be made out and filed for those persons born before June 14, 1912, showing the racial mixture for whom the birth certificate is not on file. It is a penitentiary offense to make a registration certificate false as to race or color. No marriage license shall be granted unless the clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color are correct.
B. After the Civil War, Virginia legislators were faced with a new dilemma-- how to continue the subjugation of the black population under the guise of freedom and equality. The era of "separate but equal" was born. 2. In 1912, the state passed legislation that supported the establishment of "segregation districts." 3. Segregation of public facilities -- passenger rail, steamships plying the Commonwealth's waters (1900); trolley lines (1901); state penitentiaries (1908); places of public entertainment (theaters, motion picture shows, etc) 1926; passenger motor vehicles (busses) (1930). 4. In the political area, voting was controlled through capitation taxes (1876); Poll taxes and literacy tests (1902; 1904; 1928) 5. But by 1930, everything was in place to ensure that life chances
of Virginia's blacks did not approach (or threaten) those of whites. Most
major social institutions-- family, education, economy, and politics were
directly touched by racial purity legislation. (It is significant that
religion was not).
|