Other early Jamestown codes restricted the slaves" ability to assemble, bear arms and provided for punishments and preventions of insurrections. .
In 1705, Virginia passed another set of laws that declared that all servants who were not Christians in their native lands would be slaves for life. These laws also allowed a master to determine guilt and inflict punishment. No longer would a slave have to be brought before a court to process crimes, the master had ultimate power. The slave codes of 1705 also reaffirmed that a slave who was killed by his master's hand during punishment "shall be free of all punishment as if such accident never happened." The Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 became the model of slave codes for other colonies. .
The first slave revolt in what would soon become the United States of America occurred in Virginia in 1663. Not much is really know about this rebellion except it never had the chance to occur because it was revealed to authorities before it could ever be carried out. Several of the alleged plotters were beheaded. .
The New York City Slave Rebellion of 1712 occurred after several slaves had a meeting in a tavern. Twenty three black slaves assembled on the night of April 6, 1812 set fire to several buildings and while the fires were being extinguished they attacked killing nine whites by knives, gun shots and beatings, six additional whites were wounded. Militia units were quickly mustered, and the revolt was quelled. Twenty-seven blacks were captured; six of them committed suicide in captivity. The remainder of the slaves were brutally executed some of them by being burned alive.
As a reaction to the revolt, apprehensive whites in New York quickly passed new stricter and more oppressive laws. It was now illegal for more then three black slaves to meet. It was also now legal for a master to punish his slave for even no reason at all, as long as the slave did not lose life or limb.