Barbados Slave Code

Last updated

The Barbados Slave Code of 1661, officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados [1] to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados. It is the first comprehensive Slave Act, [2] 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.

Contents

Details

The slave code described black people as 'an heathenish, brutish and an uncertaine, dangerous kind of people'. [3]

The Barbados slave code ostensibly sought to protect slaves from cruel masters ("the Negroes and other Slaves be well provided for, and guarded from the Cruelties and Insolences of themselves or other ill-tempered People or Owners" [4] ) and masters (and "any Christian") from unruly slaves; in practice, it provided extensive protections for masters, but not for slaves. The law required masters to provide each slave with one set of clothing per year, but it set no standards for slaves' diet, housing, or working conditions. It denied slaves, as chattels, even basic human rights guaranteed under common law, such as the right to life. It allowed the slaves' owners to do entirely as they wished to their slaves for anything considered a misdeed, including mutilating them and burning them alive, without fear of reprisal. [5] [6] [7] For example, if a Black person was found guilty of inflicting violence against a white person, the code stipulated that they should be "severely whipped", have "his or her nose slit and shall be burnt in the face", while the next offence shall be "punished by death". [8] However, "if any Man shall of wantonness, or only of Bloody Mindedness, or Cruel Intention, willfully kill a Negro or other Slave of his own, he shall pay into the Publick Treasury ... if he shall so kill another Man's, He shall pay to the Owner of the Negro, double the Value, and into the Publick Treasury ... And he shall further by the next Justice of the Peace, be bound to the good Behaviour". [4]

The Barbados Assembly reenacted the slave code, with minor modifications, in 1676 titled as "A Supplemental Act to a Former Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes", 1682, and 1688 titled as "An Act for the Governing of Negroes". [9] [10] The slave codes (not digitised) are available at The National Archives. [11] The laws of colonial Barbados to 1699, including those comprising the Slave Code, were collected in a book available online, The laws of Barbados collected in one volume by William Rawlin, of the Middle-Temple. In particular No. 329 details the 1688 Act (the entry for the original 1661 Act, No. 57, reads only "Repealed by Act 330"—an error, actually 329). [4]

"No person of the Hebrew Nation residing in any Sea-Port Town of this Island, shall keep or employ any Negro or other Slave ... for any Use or Service whatsoever." [4]

In 2021 the British Library digitised and made public 19th-century newspapers of Barbados (the originals remaining on the island) hoping that the public would help to find information about individual slaves on the island; names and descriptions were only made known for slaves who revolted or escaped, and are lost to history unless recorded in newspapers. [12]

Wider influence

Throughout British North America, slavery evolved in practice before it was codified into law. The Barbados slave code of 1661 marked the beginning of the legal codification of slavery. According to historian Russell Menard, "Since Barbados was the first English colony to write a comprehensive slave code, its code was especially influential." [13]

The Barbados Slave Code served as the basis for the slave codes adopted in several other British American colonies, including Jamaica, Carolina (1696), Georgia, and Antigua. In other colonies where the codes are not an exact copy, such as Virginia and Maryland, the influence of the Barbados Slave Code can be traced throughout various provisions. [13] [14] [15]

The legal basis for slavery was established in Mexico in 1636. These statutes created the status of chattel slave for those of African descent, i.e. they were slaves for life and the status of slave was inherited. Slave status passed to children through the mother in these statutes. Virginia's 1662 statute reads, "All children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother." [16]

Excerpt

The Barbados slave code, named An Act for Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes, (1661) was promoted on the island, ostensibly, to standardize procedures for managing the island's increasing slave population, which had tripled since 1640. [7]

"If any Negro or slave whatsoever shall offer any violence to any Christian by striking or any other form of violence, such Negro or slave shall for his or 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." [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved people around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the colonial history of the United States</span> Slavery in colonies that became the United States

Slavery in the colonial history of the United States refers to the institution of slavery as it existed in the European colonies which eventually became part of the United States. In these colonies, slavery developed due to a combination of factors, primarily the labour demands for establishing and maintaining European colonies, which had resulted in the Atlantic slave trade. Slavery existed in every European colony in the Americas during the early modern period, and both Africans and indigenous peoples were victims of enslavement by European colonizers during the era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slave codes</span> Subset of laws regarding chattel slavery and enslaved people

The slave codes were laws relating to slavery and enslaved people, specifically regarding the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar plantations in the Caribbean</span> Mainly in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries

Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, until the abolition of chattel slavery, was enslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery, indentured laborers from India, China, Portugal and other places were brought to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, later supplanted by European-grown sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the British and French Caribbean</span> Slavery in British and French possessions in the Caribbean

Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbadian nationality law</span> History and regulations of Barbadian citizenship

Barbadian nationality law is regulated by 1966 Constitution of Barbados, as amended; the Barbados Citizenship Act, as amended; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Barbados. Barbadian nationality is typically obtained under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth to a father or in some cases, a mother, with Barbadian nationality. It can also be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. There is no program in Barbados for citizenship by investment, and successive governments have continued to reject the idea. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the Commonwealth, has traditionally used the words interchangeably.

<i>Partus sequitur ventrem</i> Former legal doctrine of slavery by birth

Partus sequitur ventrem was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children of slave mothers would inherit the legal status of their mothers. As such, children of enslaved women would be born into slavery. The legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem was derived from Roman civil law, specifically the portions concerning slavery and personal property (chattels), as well as the common law of personal property.

Slavery at common law in the British Empire developed slowly over centuries, and was characterised by inconsistent decisions and varying rationales for the treatment of slavery, the slave trade, and the rights of slaves and slave owners. Unlike in its colonies, within the home islands of Britain, until 1807, except for statutes facilitating and taxing the international slave trade, there was virtually no legislative intervention in relation to slaves as property, and accordingly the common law had something of a "free hand" to develop, untrammelled by the "paralysing hand of the Parliamentary draftsmen". Two attempts to pass a slave code via Parliament itself both failed, one in the 1660s and the other in 1674.

Thomas Notley was the 8th Proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1676 through 1679. Having first moved to Barbados he immigrated to America in 1662. He was the speaker of the legislature in 1666. He and fellow Barbadian immigrant Jesse Wharton passed slave codes similar to those in Barbados that punished those who helped in the escape of a slave or who stole and kept another planter’s slave for themselves.

<i>Code Noir</i> 1685 law on slavery in the French colonial empire

The Code noir was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789 the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated conversion to Catholicism for all enslaved people throughout the empire, defined the punishments meted out to them, and ordered the expulsion of all Jewish people from France's colonies.

John Punch was an enslaved African who lived in the colony of Virginia. Thought to have been an indentured servant, Punch attempted to escape to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life. Two European men who ran away with him received a lighter sentence of extended indentured servitude. For this reason, some historians consider John Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies," and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." Some historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony, and a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Barbadians</span>

Black Barbadians or Afro-Barbadians are Barbadians of entirely or predominantly African descent.

Henry Hawley was the English Governor of Barbados from 1630 to 1639/40.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism in the United Kingdom</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism in the United Kingdom was the movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to end the practice of slavery, whether formal or informal, in the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the world, including ending the Atlantic slave trade. It was part of a wider abolitionism movement in Western Europe and the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish indentured servants</span> Irish people in indentured servitude in British Empire overseas territories

Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire, such as the British West Indies, British North America and later Australia.

James Sidbury is an American historian who studies race and slavery in the English-speaking Atlantic world. Sidbury is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Rice University and he is a published author.

South Carolina established its first slave code in 1695. The code was based on the 1684 Jamaica slave code, which was in turn based on the 1661 Barbados Slave Code. The South Carolina slave code was the model for other North American colonies. Georgia adopted the South Carolina code in 1770, and Florida adopted the Georgia code.

<i>Slavery Memorial</i> (Brown University)

The Slavery Memorial is a sculptural memorial on the campus of Brown University that recognizes the institution's 18th century connections to chattel slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Designed by sculptor Martin Puryear and dedicated in 2014, the memorial stands on the university's Front Green, adjacent to University Hall.

Edgar Corrie (1748–1819) was a Scottish merchant in Liverpool, a close associate at the end of the 18th century of John Gladstone.

The Barbados Servant Code of 1661 or the Master and Servant Code, officially titled as An Act for good governing of Servants and Ordaining the rights between Master and Servants was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados to provide a legal basis for servitude in the English colony of Barbados. It was one of a series of acts including the Militia Act, which provided a basis to control indentured servants, often Irish, as well as enslaved on the Caribbean Island.

References

  1. 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
  2. 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.
  3. Bernhard, Virginia (1996). "Bids for freedom: Slave resistance and rebellion plots in Bermuda, 1656–1761". Slavery & Abolition. 17 (3): 185–208. doi:10.1080/01440399608575192. ISSN   0144-039X.
  4. 1 2 3 4 William Rawlin (1699). "No. 329. An ACT for the Governing of Negroes (10 July 1688)". The laws of Barbados collected in one volume by William Rawlin, of the Middle-Temple, London, Esquire, and now clerk of the Assembly of the said island via University of Michigan Library, Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership.
  5. Nicholson, Bradley J. (1994). "Legal Borrowing and the Origins of Slave Law in the British Colonies". American Journal of Legal History. 38 (1): 38–54. doi:10.2307/845322. JSTOR   845322.
  6. Brown, Vincent (2003). "Spiritual Terror and Sacred Authority in Jamaican Slave Society". Slavery & Abolition. 24 (1): 24–53. doi:10.1080/714005263. ISSN   0144-039X. S2CID   144362132.
  7. 1 2 Handler, Jerome S. (2016-04-02). "Custom and law: The status of enslaved Africans in seventeenth-century Barbados". Slavery & Abolition. 37 (2): 233–255. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2015.1123436. ISSN   0144-039X. S2CID   59506865.
  8. Beckles, Hilary McD. (2017-01-02). "King Cuffee's Stool, General Bussa's Horse and Barrow's Plane: The Struggle for a 'Just Society' in Barbados". Caribbean Quarterly. 63 (1): 7–28. doi:10.1080/00086495.2017.1302146. ISSN   0008-6495. S2CID   164653863.
  9. Fisher, Linford D. (2014). "'Dangerous Designes': The 1676 Barbados Act to Prohibit New England Indian Slave Importation". The William and Mary Quarterly. 71 (1): 99–124. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.71.1.0099. ISSN   0043-5597. JSTOR   10.5309/willmaryquar.71.1.0099.
  10. 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.
  11. Forwards with his comments manuscript copy of Act 'to repeal several Acts and Clauses of Acts respecting Slaves and for consolidating and bringing into one Act the several Laws relating thereto and for the better order and government of slaves and for giving them further protection and security; for altering the mode of trial of those charged with capital and other offences, and for other purposes. With other enclosures'. The National Archives. 1826.
  12. "Secrets of rebel slaves in Barbados will finally be revealed". The Observer. 18 July 2021.
  13. 1 2 Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados, Chapter 6 The Expansion of Barbados, p. 112
  14. Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century
  15. Paton, D. (2001-06-01). "Punishment, Crime, and the Bodies of Slaves in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica". Journal of Social History. 34 (4): 923–954. doi:10.1353/jsh.2001.0066. ISSN   0022-4529. PMID   18754158. S2CID   29531689.
  16. Hening, William Waller. The Statutes at Large, Being the Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the Third Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619. 13 vols. Richmond: W. Gray Printers, 1819. 3:252
  17. Baker, William (1970). "William Wilberforce on the Idea of Negro Inferiority". Journal of the History of Ideas. 31 (3): 433–440. doi:10.2307/2708515. ISSN   0022-5037. JSTOR   2708515.
  18. "Excerpts from "An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes"". Oxford First Source. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199794188.013.0204 (inactive 31 January 2024). Archived from the original on 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2021-03-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)

Further reading