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''Partus sequitur ventrem'', often abbreviated to ''partus'', in the British North American colonies and later in the United States, was a legal doctrine which the English royal colonies incorporated in legislation related to definitions of slavery. It was derived from the Roman civil law; it held that the slave status of a child followed that of his or her mother. It was widely adopted into the laws of slavery in the colonies and the following United States. The Latin phrase literally means "that which is brought forth follows the womb."〔(Definition ), Powells, accessed〕 ==History== Prior to the adoption of this doctrine in the English colonies in 1662, beginning in Virginia, English common law had held that among English subjects, a child's status was inherited from its father, based on the concept that a married couple were a unit headed by the father. The community could require the father to acknowledge illegitimate children and support them, and to arrange for apprenticeships so the children were assured of learning a means of self-support. Courts wanted the fathers to take responsibility so the community did not have to support the children. In 1658 Elizabeth Key was the first woman of African descent to bring a freedom suit in the Virginia colony, seeking recognition as a free woman of color, rather than being classified as a Negro (African) and slave. Her natural father was an Englishman (and member of the House of Burgesses). He had acknowledged her, had had her baptized as a Christian in the Church of England, and had arranged for her guardianship under an indenture before his death. Her guardian returned to England and sold the indenture to another man, who held Key beyond its term. When he died, the estate classified Key and her child (also the son of an English subject) as Negro slaves. Aided by a young English lawyer working as an indentured servant on the plantation, Key sued for her freedom and that of her infant son. She won her case. The legal scholar Taunya Lovell Banks suggests the early cases in the colonies dealing with mixed-race children of ethnic Africans and English had more to do with determining "subjecthood" than with modern ideas about race or citizenship. English colonists were considered subjects of the Crown, but Africans and others, in England and the colonies at the time, were considered foreigners and not eligible for the rights of subjects. The fact that they were not Christians also caused the Africans to be classified as foreigners. The colonies had no process for naturalizing them as subjects, and citizenship had not been fully defined. The courts struggled to define the status of children born to couples of whom one was an English subject and the other a foreigner.〔 The demands of labor led to importing more African slaves as the number of indentured servants declined in the late seventeenth century, related to conditions both in England and the colonies. The legal doctrine of ''partus'' was part of colonial law passed in 1662 by the Virginia House of Burgesses, and by other colonies soon after. It held that "all children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother..."〔(Frank W. Sweet, "The Transition Period" ), Backintyme Essays, accessed 21 Apr 2009〕〔Peter Kolchin, ''American Slavery, 1619-1877'', New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, p. 17〕 As at the time most bond women were African and considered foreigners, their children likewise were considered foreigners and removed from consideration as English subjects. The racial distinction made it easier to identify them as "other." Slavery became a racial caste associated with Africans regardless of the proportion of English or European ancestry that children inherited from paternal lines. The principle became incorporated into state laws when the colonies achieved independence from Great Britain. Some historians suggest the ''partus'' doctrine was based in the economic needs of a colony with perpetual labor shortages. Conditions were difficult, mortality was high, and the government was having difficulty attracting sufficient numbers of indentured servants.〔(Taunya Lovell Banks, "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit - Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia" ), 41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School, accessed 21 Apr 2009〕 The change also legitimized the rape of slave women by white planters, their sons, overseers and other white men. Their illegitimate mixed-race children were "confined" to slave quarters unless fathers took specific legal actions on their behalf. The new law in 1662 meant that white fathers were no longer required to legally acknowledge, support, or emancipate their illegitimate children by slave women. Men could sell their children or put them to work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Partus sequitur ventrem」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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