the hypodescent social construction related to the racial caste that was associated with african slavery and the conditions of the slave societies. it was made explicit by virginia and other colonies' laws as early as 1662. virginia incorporated the roman principle of "partus sequitur ventrem" into slave law, saying that children of slave mothers were born into their status. under english common law for subjects, children's social status was determined by the father, not the mother. but the colonists put africans outside the category of english subjects. generally, white men were in positions of power to take sexual advantage of black women slaves. but, historian paul heinegg has shown that most free african-american families listed in the censuses of 1790–1810 were, in fact, descended from unions between white women and african men in colonial virginia, from the years when working classes lived and worked closely together, and before slavery had hardened as a racial caste.