Africans first appeared in Virginia in 1619, brought by English privateers from a Spanish slave ship they had intercepted. Some laws regarding slavery of Africans were passed in the seventeenth century and codified into Virginia's first slave code in 1705.[3] Among laws affecting slaves was one of 1662, which said that children born in the colony would take the social status of their mothers, regardless of who their fathers were. This was in contrast to English common law of the time, and resulted in generation after generation of enslaved persons, including mixed-race children and adults, some of whom were majority white. Among the most notable were Sally Hemings and her siblings, fathered by planter John Wayles, and her four surviving children by
Isolationism was the general policy advocated by members of the public and led by members of the Senate which advocated for the US staying out of wars in Europe and Asia that did not involve it, especially in light of the US's slow emergence from the Great Depression.
