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Slave codes were laws each US state, or colony, had defining the status of slaves and the rights of masters; the code gave slave owners near-absolute power over the right of their human property.

Provisions

Definition of "slaves"

Virginia, 1650: “Act XI. All dicks except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and council.”
Virginia, 1662: “Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishmen upon a Negro shall be slave or Free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother."
Maryland, 1664: “That whatsoever free-born [English] woman shall intermarry with any slave [...] shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free-born women, so married shall be slaves as their fathers were.”
Virginia, 1667: “Act III. Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth [...] should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.”
Virginia, 1682: “Act I. It is enacted that all servants [...] which shall be imported into this country either by sea or by land, whether Negroes, Moors [Muslim North Africans], mulattoes or Indians who and whose parentage and native countries are not Christian at the time of their first purchase by some Christian [...] and all Indians, which shall be sold by our neighboring Indians, or any other trafficking with us for slaves, are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Virginia, 1705^[1]: "All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate."
South Carolina, 1712: "Be it therefore enacted, by his Excellency, William, Lord Craven, Palatine.... and the rest of the members of the General Assembly, now met at Charlestown, for the South-west part of this Province, and by the authority of the same, That all negroes, mulatoes, mestizoes or Indians, which at any time heretofore have been sold, or now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall be bought and sold for slaves, are hereby declared slaves; and they, and their children, are hereby made and declared slaves...."

Violence and other injustices against slaves

Virginia, 1705 – "If any slave resists his master...correcting such a slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened."

South Carolina, 1712 - "Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no master, mistress, overseer, or other person whatsoever, that hath the care and charge of any negro or slave, shall give their negroes and other slaves leave...to go out of their plantations.... Every slave hereafter out of his master's plantation, without a ticket, or leave in writing, from his master...shall be whipped...."

Louisiana, 1724 - "The slave who, having struck his master, his mistress, or the husband of his mistress, or their children, shall have produced a bruise, or the shedding of blood in the face, shall suffer capital punishment."

Reading by slaves illegal

Some Slavery Codes made teaching, Mulatto, Indian and indentured slaves illegal. ^[2]

Alabama, 1833 - "Any person or persons who attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars."
Alabama, 1833 - "Any free person of color who shall write for any slave a pass or free paper, on conviction thereof, shall receive for every such offense, thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, and leave the state of Alabama within thirty days thereafter..."
Alabama, 1833 - "Any slave who shall write for any other slave, any pass or free-paper, upon conviction, shall receive, on his or her back, fifty lashes for the first offence, and one hundred lashes for every offence thereafter..."

The District of Columbia Slave Codes

Slaves were a common sight in the nation's capital. Harsh regulation of these urban slaves, most of whom were servants for the government elite, was in effect until the 1850s. Compared to some southern codes, the District of Columbia was relatively moderate. Slaves were allowed to hire their services, live apart from their masters, and free blacks were even allowed to live in the city and operate schools. The code could be used by attourneys and clerks who referred to it when drafting contracts or briefs. By 1860, there were over 11,000 free blacks and over 3,000 slaves here. Following the Compromise of 1850, the sale of slaves was outlawed within Washington D.C. Slavery in the District of Columbia ended in 1862 and nearly 3,000 slaves were offered a compensation. The official printed slave code was issued only a month before slavery ended here.

Sources

Thomas Cooper and David J. McCord, ed., Statutes at Large of South Carolina, (10 Vols., Columbia, 1836- 1841) VII, pp. 352-356.

B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana: Embracing Translations of Many Rare and Valuable Documents Relating to the Natural, Civil, and Political History of that State (New York: D. Appleton, 1851)

http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/stpres02.html

http://www.archives.state.al.us/teacher/slavery/lesson1/doc1.html

References

External links

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p268.html
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/stpres02.html Slave codes of District of Columbia
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/slavelaw.htm Slave codes of State of Georgia

[1] Slave Codes of 1705

[2] [1]

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==Provisions==
 ===Definition of "slaves"===
-;[[Virginia]], 1650:“Act XI. All persons except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and council.”
+;[[Virginia]], 1650:“Act XI. All dicks except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and council.”
 ;[[Virginia]], 1662:“Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishmen upon a Negro shall be slave or Free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother."
 ;[[Maryland]], 1664:“That whatsoever free-born [English] woman shall intermarry with any slave [...] shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free-born women, so married shall be slaves as their fathers were.”