"All servants imported and brought into the country... who were not Christians in their native country... shall be accounted and be slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to Christianity afterwards... If any slave resist his master... and shall happen to be killed in such correction, it shall not be accounted felony." — An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves, Virginia Slave Code (1705)
Compared to the South Carolina Negro Act of 1740, the Virginia code of 1705 was most similar in that both:
- Acheck_circle
Defined slavery as lifelong and hereditary and stripped the enslaved of basic legal personhood
- B
Allowed manumission only by the colonial governor's signature
- C
Granted enslaved people the right to testify in capital trials
- D
Prohibited the use of enslaved labor in rice cultivation
Explanation
Both codes formalized hereditary chattel slavery, denied the enslaved standing as legal persons, and authorized harsh corporal discipline; the South Carolina act was tightened after the Stono Rebellion of 1739.