The Early Colonial Virginia Settlers Attitude about Punishing White Males - Article Example

How and why did the early colonial Virginia settlers’ attitude about punishing white males for interracial sex change after 1640? Your answer must include discussion and comparison of the Davis case of 1630 and the Sweat case of 1640.In 1630, in England a Negro woman and a white man Re Davis had sex and thus were sentenced to punishment. It was a crime back then to sleep with the ‘lower’ race. Interracial sex was not something that the law spared. Again, in England in 1640, a white man Robert Sweat was sentenced to do “public penance” for fornicating with a black African woman while the woman was publicly whipped for the being a part of the ‘heinous’ crime.

The aftermath of these two cases is prevalent in colonial Virginia settlers. Whenever the African people were sentenced to some punishment for eloping with the white race they always contested and claimed that they are no more the salves and need to live free like other people. Virginia was one of the first states that to ‘legalize’ slavery and made discriminatory laws. Later Virginal also became the first state to offer an amendment in the law, and from there on a debate started about the offspring conceived through interracial sex; would the child be a slave or a free man!

After the incident of 1640, the settler’s attitude changed as they found the law to strict towards their own gender. Call it selfishness or protection of their own leisure but white males were later exempted from being punished for fornicating with a black woman. The Davis case and the Sweat case proved to be the deciding factors for the settlers as they wanted the other race to bear the brunt of the sin of interracial sex.