The failure of this General Assembly to adopt any plan of emancipation
or any comprehensive scheme for the deportation of the free negroes
already in the state had a disastrous effect upon the attitude of
thousands of Virginians towards slavery. Despairing of relief from
either of these sources and yet facing the peril of which the Nat
Turner Insurrection was the warning sign, her lawmakers sought in
repressive legislation to nullify the dangers of slave insurrection.
Many accepted the institution as permanent and busied themselves
marshalling arguments in vindication of its rightfulness and in
refuting with growing bitterness the assaults of its opponents.