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“Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children produced by any Englishman and a negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shall be held bond, or free only according to the condition of the mother. And if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.”
-Source: Virginia slave law passed by the House of Burgesses in December 1662