Partus sequitur ventrem was a legal doctrine in which the English royal colonies incorporated in legislation related to definitions of slavery. It held that the slave status of a child followed that of his or her mother. Prior to the adoption of the doctrine, English common law had held that among English subjects, a child's status was inherited from its father.
After successful lawsuits like Elizabeth Grinstead’s, the colonies wanted a way to insure African slaves would be bonded for life. At the time, most bonded women were African and fathers were legal required to acknowledge and support their children.
The doctrine legitimized the rape of slave women by white men. Their illegitimate mixed-race children were confined to slave quarters unless fathers took specific legal actions on their behalf. This 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. This lead to numerous slaves of mixed-race, some with primarily European ancestry.
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