The statutes listed in Virginia Regulates Sex Among Servants, Slaves, and Masters, 1642-1769 comment on the seemingly inextricable bonds between gender, an age old social construct that in itself entailed a great deal of restrictions in earlier centuries, and race, with the notion of colonial racial hierarchy being fueled by skewed ideology among whites when coupled with the developing slave culture of the south. A society already polarized by the supremacy of the male sex and traditional subordination of women, it quickly became natural, with the introduction of the seemingly anomalous African immigrant peoples in the sixteenth century, for Virginians to promote white-favoring social norms as well the passage of restrictive legislature, thereby
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Custody of bastard children born of such offenses was given to parishes, the wardens of which the mother would owe payment (Masters, page 2), with the payment and obligations of servant mother largely spiked compared those required of white women in the same situation. Furthermore, though nondescript with regards to the race of these “servants”, mentioning only that they serve “masters and mistresses” (Masters, page 1), the overall tone of the statute lays down a framework for later legislature, which seeks to affirm and maintain the existing authority of those not enslaved and indentured, which in the case of the colony, would consist of the the white population, and condemn all non-normative behavior, especially among the lesser understood black …show more content…
By 1662, for instance, a black woman in service was no longer referred to within the statutes as a servant, but, rather, a “negro woman” (Masters, page 3) who is “slave or free” (Masters, page 3). Bastards or other persons of mixed white and black ancestry were referred to derogatorily as “mulattoes”, and grouped with those of African descent at the bottom of the social order, unable to receive any of the luxuries their “whiteness” would allow. The white population’s self-determined racial identification was also clearly emphasized within the written laws, with white men and women being specifically referred to as white men and women, instead of merely masters or mistresses, thus establishing themselves as independent and superior to those outside of their demographic. Moreover, by 1666, “…the prevention of that abominable mixture and spurious issue…by negroes, mulattoes, and Indians inter- marrying with English, as by their unlawfull accompanying with one another” (Masters, page 3) became the focal issue of the legislature, as opposed to those of the past which were broader in nature and concern. Illicit sexual relations both interracially and within the slave population were now openly and blatantly
Custody of bastard children born of such offenses was given to parishes, the wardens of which the mother would owe payment (Masters, page 2), with the payment and obligations of servant mother largely spiked compared those required of white women in the same situation. Furthermore, though nondescript with regards to the race of these “servants”, mentioning only that they serve “masters and mistresses” (Masters, page 1), the overall tone of the statute lays down a framework for later legislature, which seeks to affirm and maintain the existing authority of those not enslaved and indentured, which in the case of the colony, would consist of the the white population, and condemn all non-normative behavior, especially among the lesser understood black …show more content…
By 1662, for instance, a black woman in service was no longer referred to within the statutes as a servant, but, rather, a “negro woman” (Masters, page 3) who is “slave or free” (Masters, page 3). Bastards or other persons of mixed white and black ancestry were referred to derogatorily as “mulattoes”, and grouped with those of African descent at the bottom of the social order, unable to receive any of the luxuries their “whiteness” would allow. The white population’s self-determined racial identification was also clearly emphasized within the written laws, with white men and women being specifically referred to as white men and women, instead of merely masters or mistresses, thus establishing themselves as independent and superior to those outside of their demographic. Moreover, by 1666, “…the prevention of that abominable mixture and spurious issue…by negroes, mulattoes, and Indians inter- marrying with English, as by their unlawfull accompanying with one another” (Masters, page 3) became the focal issue of the legislature, as opposed to those of the past which were broader in nature and concern. Illicit sexual relations both interracially and within the slave population were now openly and blatantly