Slavery had been practiced by the English in Virginia as early as 1610. Many of the early slaves were Native Americans, mostly the Algonquians of coastal Virginia and North Carolina. By the 1680s English settlers were routinely kidnaping Native American women and children in the coastal plains of North Carolina and Virginia in order to sell them. This Native Ameri­can slave trade involved a number of colonies, including Virginia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Kitts, and Nevis. So many Indian slaves were being traded to Pennsylvania that Pennsylvania passed a law in 1705 forbidding the importation of Carolina Indian slaves. This law crune about to avoid conflict with the Iroquois confederacy, who threatened to militarily intervene to stop the trade.

 From 1680 to 1715 thousands of Indians were sold into slavery by the English; some were sent as far away as the Caribbean. Indian slavery, however, was filled with problems, not the least of which were Indian attacks, and by 1720 Indian slavery was abandoned for African slavery. Although in 1640 there were only 1,600 Africans in the thirteen colonies (New York contained the majority, with 500), over the next three decades the number would continue to grow with the legalization of the institution and the introduction of race-based slavery. 

The first colonies to legalize slavery were Massachusetts in 1641, Connecticut in 1650, Virginia in 1661, Maryland in 1663, New York in 1665, and South Carolina in 1682. The south­ ern and Caribbean colonies unlike the northern colonies became increasingly dependent on slaves to run large tobacco, rice and indigo, and sugar plantations. Although the laws of Massachusetts, Connecticut, ai1d Virginia recognized the institution of slavery, Maryland held the distinction of being the first. colony in 1661-to man­ date slavery as a lifelong condition for Africans and their children, a step that preceded its actual statutory recognition of the institution in 1663. Virginia followed suit in 1670, defining slavery as a lifelong inheritable "racial" status. 

As settlements spread along the Atlantic coast, so did the need for slave labor and the legalization of slavery. With the onset of the eighteenth century, the remaining colonies legalized slavery, be­ ginning with Pennsylvania in 1700 and followed closely by New Jersey in 1702 and Rhode Island in 1703. The legalization of slavery in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island was especially surprising, considering that these colonies were heavily populated by the Quakers, who disapproved of the institution of slavery. The last colonies to legalize slavery were Nev; Hampshire in 1714; North Carolina, also a Quaker haven, in 1715; Delaware in 1721; and finally Georgia in 1755. Initially, when it was established in 1732, Georgia was conceived as a penal colony. Its purpose was to rehabilitate criminals for England, as well as serve as a defensive buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida. Led by James Oglethorpe, the colony remained alcohol-free and slave-free until 1750. Oglethorpe harbored a strong dislike for slavery, not only because he viewed it as cruel, but because he thought it caused many whites to be lazy and unproductive. 

By 1755, however, slavery was legalized throughout the colonies and spread rapidly. As the number of African slaves increased, it became necessary to develop a system to regulate the growing slave population. Many colonies looked to the Spanish. The Spanish were the first to pass codes to prevent slave revolts in the Caribbean. Following the Spanish model, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland fashioned slave codes that regulated every aspect of the slaves' lives. The codes forbade teaching slaves to read and write, and outlawed group gatherings. The codes also required slaves to carry passes and prohibited them from affiliating with free blacks, who were often viewed as instigators of slave revolts. 

Despite the comprehensiveness of the slave codes, the severity of punishment and the level of enforcement varied from colony to colony. Georgia and South Carolina developed and enforced the most brutal slave codes in British North America. South Carolina, which had the largest population of slaves in the colonial period-often larger than the white population-enacted the strictest codes. Soon thereafter, Georgia adopted many of the same practices. Scholars have advanced numerous theories to explain the harshness of these codes, one prominent theory being that the codes were precipitated by white fea.rs of the large numbers of enslaved Africans, whom they did not like or trust.