In 1659–60, the House of Burgesses—something like our Congress, but elected only by land owners—enacted a law that recognized “negro slaves” for the first time. It provided tax breaks to foreign cargo ships only if they first delivered such slaves when they arrived at Virginian ports. Such ships, mainly Dutch, received a reduction in tariffs on tobacco to the much lower rate of Britain’s own. This subsidy for slaves probably marks the turning point at which permanently enslaved labor (a larger up-front expense, after all) became more profitable than indentures.
