African women were mostly impregnated by free English man. The 1662 law was intended to adjudicate what would happen to the offspring of unions between free Christian Englishmen and African female bond servants who were serving lifetime terms. The law basically gave the master control over the labor of that child for a very long time, possibly for life. The law also took away the right that had been part of custom that a mother or father bad some input into what happened to their child when it came to making arrangements for that child to be indentured. Also, the law disregarded the custom that Christian's cannot enslave other Christians, so servants could no longer be free through Baptism.

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