In December 1662 the Virginia House of Burgesses met for the second time that year and approved a set of twenty-three statutes that focused on various facets of colonial life. The most infamous of these laws, Act XII: Negro Women’s Children to Serve according to the Condition of the Mother, made the civil status of African and African American slave women inheritable by their offspring. The burgesses, convened by the governor, Sir William Berkeley, and presided over by the speaker, Captain Robert Wynne, acted in response to their perceptions of the colonists’ needs and interests. About five years later, the House of Burgesses approved another statute, Act III: Baptism Does Not Exempt Slaves from Bondage, which answered the following query: Does the conferring of the Christian sacrament of baptism in any way change the legal status of a slave? The legislators ruled that baptism did not alter a slave’s legal status.