How Racism Became Hereditary in 1662: The Law That Changed Everything

Did you know that in 1662, a single law in Virginia made racism hereditary and permanently tied Blackness to enslavement? This wasn’t an accident. It was a calculated move to ensure slavery would last for generations.

Before 1662, English law followed "partus sequitur patrem" (Latin for “the child follows the father”), meaning a child’s legal status—free or enslaved—came from their father. But Virginia flipped the script, passing a law that said "partus sequitur ventrem" (“the child follows the womb”). This meant that if a Black woman was enslaved, so was her child. No exceptions.

The slave codes were designed to remove any possibility of Black freedom, making it so that no matter what, enslavement was passed down from mother to child, permanently securing free labor for white enslavers.

Why Was This Law Created?

This move was about power and economics. By the mid-1600s, slavery in the American colonies was growing, but there was still legal ambiguity about what happened to the children of enslaved Black women.

• Before 1662, a child born to a white father and an enslaved Black mother could argue for freedom based on the father’s status.

  
  

• Enslavers didn’t like that. Every “loophole” that led to potential Black freedom meant less control and less wealth for them.

  
  

• The new law made sure that any child born to an enslaved mother was automatically property—forever.

This law also gave white enslavers a financial incentive to exploit Black women. They could profit off the children they forced enslaved women to bear, ensuring that slavery wasn’t just about the people already in bondage—but about creating new generations of enslaved laborers.

The Long-Term Impact: A System Built on Black Subjugation

The consequences of this law went far beyond 1662. It laid the foundation for systemic racism in America in several key ways:

• It protected white men from responsibility. Even if an enslaved woman’s child had a white father, that child was still property. White men had no obligation to acknowledge or provide for their own children born into slavery.

  
  

• It turned reproductive control into economic gain. Black women’s bodies were no longer just seen as labor—they were seen as sources of wealth generation for enslavers.

  
  

• It made Blackness legally synonymous with enslavement. This law was one of the first major legal moves to codify race-based oppression—setting the stage for future laws that would restrict Black freedom even after slavery was abolished.

Why This Still Matters Today

Some people will say, “Slavery was a long time ago—why does this still matter?” But this law didn’t just disappear—it evolved. The racial hierarchy it created is still deeply embedded in American systems today:

• The policing of Black women’s bodies through reproductive laws. The idea of controlling Black birth and labor didn’t end with slavery—it continues through policies that limit access to maternal healthcare and reproductive rights.

  
  

• Generational wealth gaps rooted in racial inequality. White families were able to build wealth for centuries, while Black families were systematically denied that opportunity.

  
  

• Mass incarceration targeting Black communities. Laws that disproportionately criminalize Black people are modern extensions of the same system that once made Blackness a legal marker of enslavement.

  
  

• Understanding where these systems began is the first step in dismantling them. The past isn’t just history—it’s a blueprint for the present.

  
  

Final Thoughts: The Legacy of 1662

America’s racial hierarchy wasn’t an accident—it was built into the law, generation after generation. And it started with a simple but devastating legal shift: defining Blackness as property, passed through the mother.

We are still fighting the same system. The only question is—what are we going to do about it?