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Enactment of the Virginia Hereditary Slave Law.

Date: 1662

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CHIL
WHI
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HISR

This law determines that children who are born to enslaved mothers and fathered by white men will be considered "slaves." This also begins the codification of "white" as the legal description used to refer to colonists. Africans begin to be referred to as Black or "Negro" people and Native people as "Indians."