If you are looking for good discussion/explanation the development of the free African Americans/Free People of Color then a good place to view would be the Forward by Ira Berlin and the Introduction by Paul Heinneg's at his site www.freeafricanamericans.com. It deals with the beginnings (1600's) of most of the free black families coming out of British North North America in the states of VA. MD, and NC who later migrate thru out the country. He also concludes, as I did many years ago when I really started this search that in fact many of these early families in VA were started by relationships between white woman (primarily indentured servants whose indenture was increased following the birth of the child) and slave men. After 1662 your status is determined by the status of your mother. To be sure the majority of the "mulatto" children born were the product of a white father and a slave woman, but by and large these men were not building a family but a "labor pool".

The laws relating to race also have their beginnings in this time period and develop into what we see in the 1700's and 1800's.

Selma