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A group of 20 African slaves arrive in the Virginia colony
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The colony of Massachusetts enacts laws allowing slavery under certain circumstances
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Virginia passes a law that states that any children born in the colony would assume the status of their mother. If their mother was a slave, but their father was free, the child would be born a slave.
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The late 17th and early 18th centuries saw a rise in the Atlantic slave trade. Virginia's slave population reaches 23,100, or 42% of the colony's total population.
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Royal governor of Virginia Lord Dunmore declared martial law, and offered freedom to any slaves of rebel patriots in exchange for leaving their masters to join the royal forces.