1663: Slavery is Legalized
From Assembly Proceedings
Labor hierarchies, racist ideas and actions converged in the legalization of slavery in Maryland in 1663 when the General Assembly passed the “Act Concerning Negroes and Other Slaves.” The law legalized slavery and underscored the racial basis of the institution by specifically calling out Black Africans as slaves. The law further reinforced racial hierarchy by prohibiting “marriage between white women and [B]lack men” (Berlin, Grivno, & Brewer, 2007, p. 27). This prohibition reflected another racialized attitude held by many white people who viewed Black men as aggressively sexual and prone to go after “pure” white women (Kendi, 2017, p. 43).
For the next one hundred years, over 100,000 Africans, mainly Igbo, Angolans, and Mande, were brought to Maryland, and “by 1755, about one third of Maryland’s population—in some places as much as one half—was derived from Africa” (Berlin, Grivno, & Brewer, 2007, p. 4).