Free blacks could own land, paid taxes, vote (in certain circumstances), marry, could sue in the courts, and basically had the same rights as white Englishmen. Prior to 1660, colonial Virginia did not make laws regarding blacks based on race--slavery was a new institution to the English. A few free blacks prior to 1660 even owned slaves. The shortage of indentured servants that began about 1660 began to change that racism became institutionalized in Virginia colonial law
Google "Free Blacks in Colonial Virginia" --you'll get an interesting answer.
