Dividing Blacks and Whites In 1661, the Virginia Burgesses began using law to drive a social wedge between black slaves and white indentured servants. The increasing importation of slaves ensured, naturally, also an increasing number who would run away. Many of these partnered with white servants in the endeavor. The Act stated that any white caught in the company of a runaway black slave would be punished by serving additional time for that slave’s master to compensate for the slave’s lost time. If the slave had escaped or died, the white indentured servant would be liable for 4,500 pounds of
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