dec 1, 1662 - Partus sequitur ventrem - a legal doctrin

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Partus sequitur ventrem, the legal doctrine meaning “the offspring follows the womb,” made slavery heritable through the mother, turning enslaved women into vessels for producing property.

Though widely seen as foundational to American slavery, the law was not uniformly codified across British American colonies.
The power of partus often came not from consistent legal enforcement but from the assumptions, customs, and practices of enslavers, who treated enslaved women's children as property regardless of legal clarity. While courts generally recognized enslaved people as property, their rulings on partus were inconsistent (legal challenges like Elizabeth Key's freedom suit).

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