Slave codes legally empowered enslavers to kill enslaved people without penalty

Evidence

Convinced that the prevailing social and economic order could be preserved only if Black people were objects of perpetual surveillance and control, authorities across the colonies enacted slave codes, laws that governed Black people’s lives and denied them basic human rights, including the rights to move freely, to “resist” any white person, and to carry weapons of any kind. Failure to adhere to these restrictions resulted in brutal punishment. Early slave codes also legally empowered enslavers to beat, maim, assault, or even kill an enslaved person without penalty. And if found guilty of participating in insurrectionary activity, an enslaved person would automatically receive the death penalty. In many colonies, such as Virginia, the public treasury was even required to compensate enslavers if an enslaved person was killed while resisting or running away. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 353

Categorization

• CANDY: The detail that Virginia’s public treasury compensated enslavers for slaves killed while running away is a striking, shareable historical fact.