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House of Burgess passes first slave code
This was one of the first attempts to use the law to protect slave holders interests and would set the pattern going forward. In this situation Virginians supported the use of the law to help dictate that slaves be converted to christianity and that children born to slave mothers became the property of the slave owner -
Law permitting the killing of slaves passed
It was written into law that a rebellious slave could be legally killed or beaten and no crime was considered to be committed. South Carolina banned the freeing of slaves unless the slave left the colony. -
First of the "Paper Acts" are passed
The colonies had established the own currencies, however, because there was no consistent valuation the differences made trade cumbersome. The paper acts were passed to ban paper currencies in an attempt to curb the valuation issues, as well as issues with counterfitting. -
Slave owning Quakers kicked out of colony
The Quakers were a peaceful people who attempted to live according to the scriptures. As they began to have difficulties reconciling the scriptures to the practice of slavery, they took steps to rid themselves of the practice., in 1758 they forced slave owners out of the community. -
Pontiac's War begins
Based on the teachings of a prophet, Neolin, Pontiac began offenses against settlers in an attempt to push them out of what he considered to be native lands -
Sugar Act passed
The sugar act, followed by the townshend act and the stamp acts were passed. The purpose of these acts were to curb illegal trade, however, the colonist response was to boycott European goods and turn to domestically produced goods. This was the first catalyst to the consumer revolution. -
Pontiac's War ends
In July of 1776 Pontiac met with William Johnson at Fort Ontario to sign a treaty. Even though the war ended in a treaty it did influence how indians would be dealt with by the British in the coming years. -
Slave population continues to increase
in 1770 the slave population made up 8% of the total population. This represented growth in the slave population that was due to the need for labor to support the agricultural and production needs brought on with the colonies budding consumer revolution.
