Barbados Slave Code

The Barbados Slave Code of 1661,[1] officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados[2] to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados and, ostensibly, to standardize procedures for managing the island's increasing slave population, which had tripled since 1640.[3] It is the first comprehensive Slave Act,[4] and the code's preamble, which stated that the law's purpose was to "protect them [slaves] as we do men's other goods and Chattels", established that black slaves would be treated as chattel property in the island's court.

  1. ^ https://slaveryandfreedomlaws.lib.unb.ca/laws/barbados-1661
  2. ^ Michael Grossberg, Christopher Tomlins (eds), The Cambridge History of Law in America, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, p. 260. ISBN 978-0-521-80-305-2
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Rugemer, Edward B. (2013). "The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century". The William and Mary Quarterly. 70 (3): 429–458. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429.

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