Albemarle County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1782-1832

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Albemarle County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1782-1832. Local government records collection, Albemarle County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Summary

Creator:
Albemarle County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Albemarle County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1782-1832. Local government records collection, Albemarle County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

Albemarle County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1782-1832, consist of suits initiated in the District Court and County Court by enslaved people seeking to gain their freedom on the law side of the court. Cases are identified by style of suit consisting of plaintiff and defendant names. Surnames of others involved in a suit, including secondary plaintiffs and defendants, witnesses, deponents and affiants, and family members with surnames different from the plaintiff or defendant are indexed. Also identified are names of enslaved people and emnslavers found in suit as well as whether enslaved people won their freedom. Predominant documents found in freedom suits include petitions, records of suits, depositions, affidavits, wills, among other items. Information found in documents include enslaved persons' argument for freedom, acquisition of enslaved by enslavers, ancestry of enslaved people, and relationship between enslaved and enslavers.

Judgments (Freedom Suits) are useful when researching local history and genealogical information, particularly for African Americans. They are a valuable source of local, state, social, and legal history and serve as a primary source for understanding a locality's history.

Biographical / historical:

Enslaved people sued for emancipation in freedom suits based on the following: they were descendant(s) of a free female ancestor, typically a Native American (Hening Statutes, volume 2, p.170); failure of enslaver(s) to abide by the 1778 "slave nonimportation act" (Henings Statutes, volume 9, pp. 471-472); or claimed to have been freed by enslaver(s) by deed of emancipation or last will and testament (Henings Statutes volume 11, pp. 39-40)

Albemarle County was named for William Anne Keppel, second earl of Albemarle, and governor of Virginia from 1737 to 1754. It was created by a statute of 1744 and formed from Goochland County; part of Louisa County was added in 1761 and islands in the Fluvanna (now the James) River in 1770. The court met for the first time on 8 February 1745. The county seat is the city of Charlottesville.

The District Courts were created by an act of the General Assembly passed on 22 December 1788. The purpose for the creation of the District Courts was to alleviate congestion in the General Court which had caused unreasonable delays in the adjudication of common law cases. The state was divided into eighteen districts, each composed of several counties, plus the district of Kentucky. The District Court held at Charlottesville heard cases originating in the counties of: Albemarle, Amherst, Fluvanna, and Louisa as well as the city of Charlottesville.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Albemarle County.
Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.10 cu. ft.