Question

Slavery was a standard practice within the British colonies in North America by the eighteenth century, particularly in the southern territories. When did colonial legislatures begin to formally legalize the institution?

1) In the first half of the seventeenth century
2) In the second half of the seventeenth century
3) In the first half of the eighteenth century
4) In the second half of the eighteenth century

Answer 1

Slavery was formally legalized in the British North American colonies in the first half of the seventeenth century, beginning with laws such as the Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641.

Step-by-step explanation:

The formal legalization of slavery in the British colonies in North America began in the first half of the seventeenth century. Specifically, colonial legislatures started to enact laws that acknowledged and regulated the practice of slavery. One of the first such laws was passed in Massachusetts in 1641. This was the Massachusetts Body of Liberties which provided a legal basis for chattel slavery in North America, stating that slavery was lawful in cases of captives taken in just wars or with those who sold themselves or were sold into servitude.

Over the ensuing years, other colonies followed with their own legislation, with Virginia introducing laws in the 1660s that further entrenched slavery as a legal institution. This legal framework allowed for the transformation of flexible labor systems into the fixed and racialized institution of chattel slavery that became predominant in the southern colonies and later throughout the United States.