 In this video, I'd like to talk about slave laws of the early North American colonial period. To do this, I'd like to first set the framework of the functions of laws and the characteristics of laws and then try to apply some of those, the questions that arise from this framework and definition, to a few, a couple of slave laws from this early colonial period. So what functions do laws serve in society? Well, laws serve to reinforce the values of a society. Laws generally serve to prevent or prohibit something from happening. Laws can maintain social order. Laws punish people who commit crimes and laws protect people from harm. So these are the functions that laws serve. What are the characteristics of these laws? Laws generally are sets of rules that regulate human conduct in a society. Laws are generally created or maintained by the state. They are stable, meaning unchanging, fixed and uniform. Laws are also the expression of the will of the people in that particular society. And lastly, laws tend to be backed by some coercive authority that is usually the state. Now, with those things in mind, let's think about slave laws of the early North American colonial period. These slave laws were stable, but they tended to change with the circumstances. And slave laws also tended to be reactionary. So they would respond to something that happened. So with that in mind, we're going to look at two slave laws of the early North American colonial period. And as we look at those slave laws, we'll ask these two questions. Number one, what were the circumstances surrounding the passage of this law? And number two, to what was the law responding? 1661, in Virginia, the colonial legislature passed this law. In case any English servant shall run away in company of any Negroes, he would have to give special service for extra years to the master of the runaway Negro. All right, so take a few moments to look at this. And now let's return to our two questions. So what were the circumstances surrounding the passage of this law? Well, obviously we have an Englishman, white, running away when they Negro. To what was the law responding? So the English are running away, English servants and then district servants running away with a group of Negroes, black servants. The English servant will have to give extra years to the master of the runaway Negro. So to what was this law responding? Well, the whites and blacks in the colonial Virginia in 1661 and before were running away together. This is an example of cooperation between whites and blacks in the colonial era of North America. So whites and blacks who were both servants or in the case of the Negroes, it suggests that they were slaves. They are experiencing common things and they want to run away together. So this law is reacting to the cooperation of lower class people in colonial Virginia. And the whites and blacks are running away together. Another law, 1691, 30 years later, this law is passed by the colonial legislature, the House of Burgesses in Virginia. Vanishment of any white man or woman being free, who shall intermarry with a Negro, mulatto or Indian man or woman, bond or free. Well, if we return to our two questions, what were the circumstances surrounding the passage of this law and to what was this law responding? Well, it seems looking back at the law again, the circumstances are English or whites, intermarrying, blacks, mulatto. And mulatto generally meant someone who was of mixed race heritage, generally African and English or African and European and Native American. So there was intermarrying or missing among these groups. What are we doing to these white men or women who are free, who intermarry with the Negro, mulatto or Indian, or we're banishing them? So to what is this responding? Well, before 1691, white men and white women were marrying Negroes, blacks, mulattoes, mixed race people and Indians without any consequence or penalty from the governing authorities. That somehow threatened the social order of Virginia, Colonial Virginia. And so we're changing that with this law. So as you look at the rest of the colonial laws during this early period in American history, think about what the circumstances are surrounding the law and to what are these laws responding? Thank you.