Racial Slavery Quotes
This license was issued for Spain in 1517 shortly after he was crowned. This was the beginning of the Slave Trade where Spain shipped kidnapped Africans as slaves to the West Indies.
Miscegenation was very common between Blacks and whites throughout American history. Even though it was a taboo subject in “polite society” white women marrying or cohabiting with Negro men was so common in Colonial America that the State of Maryland had to pass a law making the children slaves to further discourage the white women. This violated the long held tradition that the slave status of children followed the status of the mothers. The law backfired as Maryland colonists encouraged their white female indentured servants to interbreed with Black slaves so that the children would also become their property as slaves as even slave children were very valuable. The law was then repealed after only 20 years.
After emancipation of the slaves legislation and the enforcement thereof were needed to produce freedom. Congress passed much legislation but the Southern anti-Negro forces made enforcement difficult and finally impossible. It would be 100 years before civil rights became a reality in the South and many other parts of the nation.
See the Vermont Constitution for another variant of how slavery was abolished: {616994}
In contrast to Massachusetts with had passed a law in 1641 banning slavery (Quote 643567), Maryland 22 years later became to first state to pass a law to formally recognize and allow Negro slavery.
