Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865

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

Summary

Extent:
.9 cu. ft. (2 boxes, 1 folder)
Creator:
Albemarle County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865, consist of approximately 467 "Free Negro" registrations, affidavits, and certificates. Some free registrations originated in other Virginia localities, such as Caroline County, Goochland County, and the City of Fredericksburg. Upon their removal to Albemarle County, individuals surrendered their free papers to the court to prove their free status. In such cases, they would have received an Albemarle County free registration to replace the document(s) handed over to the court. The registrations, affidavits, and certificates document the free person's name, sometimes age, a brief physical description, and the circumstances of the person's freedom or emancipation, parents, former enslaver, place or date of emancipation.

There does not appear to be an extant Albemarle County "Free Negro" register. However, additional information related to the registration of free persons in the county is inconsistently documented in several Albemarle County minute books, such as Albemarle County (Va.) Minute Book, 1811-1814, and order books, like Albemarle County (Va.) Order Book, 1806-1807. Not all minute and order books have been surveyed for such information at this time.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type:

"Free Negro" Registrations

In 1793, the Virginia General Assembly specified that "free Negroes or mulattoes" were required to "be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the town clerk, which shall specify age, name, color, status and by whom, and in what court emancipated." These entries often coincided with the creation of a loose certificate containing largely the same identifying information.

Documents in this record group differ from the bound volumes referred to as "registers." These registration records typically appear in the form of certificates or handwritten statements recording the free status of a Black or Multiracial person. They can include the free person's name, sometimes age, a brief physical description, and the circumstances of the person's freedom or emancipation, parents, former enslaver, place or date of emancipation. There are also affidavits that were given by individuals affirming a free person's status, as well as written descriptions of free people. In some cases, a person would not have a registration to submit to the court. Instead, they produced some other form of identification proving their free status, for example, a deed of emancipation, a will, an apprenticeship indenture, or an affidavit of someone testifying to their character and status.

Locality History: 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.

Lost Locality Note: All order books except the first and many loose papers between 1748 and 1781 were destroyed by British general Banastre Tarleton's raid on Charlottesville in 1781 during the Revolutionary War.

Acquisition information:
These records were transferred to the Library of Virginia from Albemarle County (Va.) as part of an undated accession.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged

  • Series I: Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865, arranged chronologically by registration date.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.