In the state of Virginia, the justice system constituted black inferiority prior to formal slavery. In the case Re Sweat, defendant Robert Sweat was charged with impregnating the Negro slave of a lieutenant. Sweat was punished to public penance or repentance and the Negro was sentenced to whipping at a whipping post. This case demonstrates the injustice towards blacks from the legal system. The Negro women was sentenced to whipping for a possible rape, because it is probable to assume that she did not consent to sexual relations with Sweat. Furthermore, Sweat’s case is interpreted as an invasion of property rights. His actions to sexual relations with someone inferior diminished the value of the slave. Moreover to punish the slave for sleeping
