Reed, Patrick2023-07-142023-07-142018Reed, Patrick. “The Virginia Slave Code Of 1705.” Report: West Point Undergraduate Historical Review. Volume 8 (2018): 20-29.2993-5989NAhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14216/262"The English colony of Virginia was founded upon the shoulders of those in bondage. Most whites came to Virginia as indentured servants by way of the headright system, and nearly all blacks came as slaves. However, Virginia in the early to mid-1600s lacked clear racial standards as people of all races enjoyed some degree of upward social mobility. Today colonial Virginia is usually remembered for its heavy reliance on institutionalized racial slavery, but its social dynamic did not always reflect this viewpoint. While blacks were subject to a few discriminatory practices as early as the 1640s, they were not victims of the systematic racism that came to define the colony as early as 1705.1 Interracial marriage was common and interracial couples who had offspring, though officially viewed as illegitimate children, were not subject to legal punishment.2 It makes sense, then, to question how Virginia came to be one of the most efficiently racist slave societies in the Americas...."HistoryJournal articles