Excerpt from Term Paper:

...... Slavery in the South was promoted and maintained through different means. The most important however was the legal code. The state of Virginia had one of the toughest set of laws among slave states. This is why it is considered to have been a leading player in supporting the institution of slavery, along with South Carolina, and Maryland. However, in the beginning there was a clear legal distinction between the term of servant and that of slave. The July 9, 1640-Punishment for Runaway Servants points out precisely this boundary. Whereas the runaway servants were punished by extending their indenture, the black runaway was sentenced to become slave for life. This comes to prove the distinctive legal approach between Europeans who came to America after being promised secure passage in exchange for a certain number of years spent in service to an American white family, while black people, who had been brought in from Africa, and who did not benefit from the possibility of freedom
The distinction between slaves and servants was made possible through subsequent legal regulations and increased the differences between the two categories. At the same time however, the indenture procedure could not have been overrun, and

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