HIS 13 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Atlantic Slave Trade, Atlantic World, Coverture
Document Summary
Enslaved women have few rights, very unlikely that one would be able to initiate a divorce; she would likely need to buy her own freedom and pay for the divorce herself. Ability for male slave to initiate divorce depended on his relationship with his owner. Fork in the road of women"s access to legal protections: legal protection against sexual violence was given to free women, enslaved women were not given these protections; this can be attached to ideas of race. White free women gain access to legal protections against sexual violence. 1662 - virginia passes law of the land: offspring follows the womb. Child of an enslaved woman is enslaved, this is inherited. This reversed english customary law that children follow the father. Passed after a series of suits of children of master fathers and enslaved mothers who sue for their freedom because their father is free. Race is invented through the matrilineal line, not based on how one looks.
