This study analyzes legislation governing black life in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The years from 1664 to 1712 witnessed the formative era of slavery in the middle colonies, and by the beginning of the 18th century, specific laws governing African Americans were passed. The long range effects of the Insurrection of 1712 (which took the lives of nine whites and critically wounded five others) and the Negro Conspiracy of 1741 produced extensive slave codes in New York and New Jersey. Pennsylvania took the more subtle approach of high tariffs, starting a tariff war against slavery....