What was included in the slave codes

The sugar boom in the British island colonies required more (forced) labour for the ever-growing sugar plantation economy.

The sugar boom in the British island colonies required more (forced) labour for the ever-growing sugar plantation economy. However, during the second half of the seventeenth century, shifting colonial demographics meant that the white British elites were becoming a racial (if ruling) minority within a society of mainly enslaved Africans; a pattern that was seen in other European colonies in the Caribbean.

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Fearing a potential uprising or revolt by a Black majority, the planter class needed to ensure social control of the slave community that were overwhelming hostile and not willing to accept their subordinate status. British planters influenced the construction of laws, known as ‘slave codes’, based on sixteenth century English common laws that dealt with English felons, vagrants, vagabonds, and servants that absconded from their duties. Alongside the judicial laws for social control, were unwritten laws and customs that further brutalised the living conditions of Black communities. These traditions and customs in conjunction with legal statutes were created to convince Blacks to accept the European perception that Blacks were inferior or else be punished. As seen in the Spanish, French, Dutch, and Danish colonial islands, these laws quickly came to define the nature of slavery, the position of the enslaved, and the extent of power of slaveholders.

One of the earliest established colonial laws in the Atlantic was for the island of Barbados in 1661, known as An Act for Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes. The Barbados slave code established that enslaved Africans be treated as chattel.

The need for control and subjugation of Blacks was supported by notions of white supremacy and ultimately, any act of violence (as self-defense or otherwise) and legal rights for representation were in the hands of the slaveholders:

[N}egroes [are] an heathenish brutish and an unsertaine dangerous kinde of people…

[B]eing brutish slaves [they] deserve not for the basenesse of their condition to be tryed by the legall tryall of twelve Men of their appeares or neighborhood which truely neither can be rightly done as the Subjects of England are nor in execution to bee delayed towards them in case of such horrid crimes comitted[.] It is there fore enacted … [that] two Justices shall by their Warrant call to them three able good and legall freeholders shall heare & examine all evidences proofe and testimony of the fact.

Slave codes gave slaveholders the legal right to torture and murder Black subjects of colonial society without negative consequence:

If any Negro or slave whatsoever shall offer any violence to any Christian by striking or the like, such Negro or slave shall for his and her first offence be severely whipped by the Constable. For his second offence of that nature he shall be severely whipped his nose slit, and be burned in some part of his face with a hot iron. And being brutish slaves, [they] deserve not, for the baseness of their condition, to be tried by the legal trial of twelve men of their peers, as the subjects of England are. And it is further enacted and ordained that if any Negro or other slave under punishment by his master unfortunately shall suffer in life or member, which seldom happens, no person whatsoever shall be liable to any fine therefore.”*

*In this case, ‘Christian’ means any white (European) person, regardless of class status. What is also important to note is that sanctioned violence included all social aspects of blackness in colonial society, whether free (i.e., ‘Negro’) or enslaved.

Ultimately, these codes initiated a set of government sanctioned racial discriminate and more importantly, racialised violence that not only affected enslaved Africans but all Blacks, including those born free or legally manumitted (released from enslavement) for nearly two centuries.

The Barbados Slave Code was adapted to Jamaica and other British colonies in the Caribbean and even to the South Carolina colony as the legal basis for the treatment of enslaved people in many parts of the North American thirteen colonies. Throughout the late seventeenth into much of the eighteenth century, changes to the slave codes were only enacted to further restrict the few liberties of the slave community and make their lives worse. However, due to the extreme work conditions and unregulated murders of enslaved Africans that made for a high Black mortality rate, it wasn’t until the 1780s when some islands implemented some reforms intended to improve the material conditions of the enslaved, reduce the mortality and promote a natural increase in population. The modifications were never consistently applied and thus, the conditions of Blacks did not notably change or improve until after well after slavery ended.

Slave Codes were laws that related to slaves and the practise of slavery, especially in the New World.  This includes both North America and South America.  As such, slave codes were a significant aspect of the history of slavery in the United States.  Millions of African slaves were brought to the New World as part of the Atlantic Slave Trade, which occurred from the 16th century until the 19th century.  After arriving, these slaves were sold to slave owners who subjected them to chattel slavery, which means they were the personal property of the slave owners.  As well, the societies that the slaves found themselves in, established ‘Slave Codes’ which regulated the lives of the slaves and controlled what they could and could not do.

As stated above, Slave Codes were laws that set out rules for slaves in the United States.  In general, the Slave Codes of the early colonies of the United States were adopted from British Slave Codes that had been used throughout other parts of the British Empire.  For example, the first instance of a British Slave Code in the New World was on the Caribbean island of Barbados in 1661.  The Slave Codes used on Barbados were copied and used on another island in the Caribbean – Jamaica.  The British colony of Jamaica began using Slave Codes in 1664, but they were updated twenty years later in 1684.  These Jamaican Slave Codes proved to the be the model that was first used in the United States.​

The first area to establish a Slave Code was South Carolina, which adopted earlier British policies in 1712.  Other regions of the United States followed South Carolina’s lead.  For instance, in 1770 the colony of Georgia adopted similar Slave Codes to South Carolina.  As well, Florida followed suit and established equally similar Slave Codes.​

In general, the Slave Codes of the time limited the actions that a slave could take.  For example, one such rule was that slaves were not allowed to leave the slave owner’s property unless joined by a white person.  The Slave Codes also had harsh punishments for slaves that tried to escape.  This included whippings, brandings and even the death penalty.  Slaves were also banned from owning weapons and punished if they were found to have stolen items.  In all, the Slave Codes attempted to control the daily life and activities of slaves in the United States.

Slavery in the United States (1850)

A cotton plantation in Mississippi. (1884)

The most common Slave Codes included rules related to the following:​

• Economics: Some Slave Codes restricted the ability of slaves to buy or sell goods.
• Education: Slaves were often not allowed to learn to read.  This was especially true after Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion.
• Mobility: Slaves were generally restricted from leaving the slave owners plantation or property.  In fact, slaves were often required to have passes that allowed them to leave their owners property or to be accompanied by a white person.
• Marriage/Relationships: Black slaves were not allowed to have relationships with anyone of another race.  As well, marriage between slaves was often not legally recognized.
• Punishments: Slaves often faced severe punishments for actions that were considered wrong.  This included many different forms of abuse, such as: whippings and beatings.  As well, slave owners generally faced little or no punishment for killing their slaves.

In all, Slave Codes played a significant role in the history of the United States and its practise of slavery.  The Slave Codes of the United States officially ended in 1865 with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.  This amendment, which was part of the ‘Reconstruction Amendments’, following the end of the American Civil War, officially ended slavery in the United States.  As such, the Slave Codes were no longer legal.  Instead, many states instituted ‘Black Codes’, which were aimed at controlling the daily lives of former slaves.​