PUBLIC "-//Library of Virginia//TEXT (US::Vi::vi01367::A Guide to the Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862)//EN" "vi01367.xml" A Guide to the Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862 Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862 Microfilm reel numbers 49, 57 and 61 Eddie Woodward and Catherine OBrion Library of Virginia © 2006 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.

Conditions of Use

Machine-readable finding aid derived from being created directly into EAD, created by Eddie Woodward and Catherine OBrion, 05 April 2006 and 03 August 2007 Description is in English 2013-11-21 Converted to schema conforming EAD by dtd2schema.vh.xsl. A Guide to the Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862 A Collection in the Library of Virginia Surry County Reel Numbers 49, 57 and 61 Eddie Woodward and Catherine OBrion

Library of Virginia 2006 LVA staff Library of Virginia Descriptive Summary The Library of Virginia Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862 Surry County (Va.) Reels 49, 57 and 61 Library of Virginia 3 microfilm reels (373 images) English Surry County (Va.) Circuit Court. Administrative Information Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Use microfilm copy, York County (Va.) Reel 51.

Preferred Citation

Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862, Surry County Reel Numbers 49, 57, and 61, Local Government Records Collection, Surry County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

The microfilm copy of these records was generated by The Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah (Reel 49) and the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Branch (Reels 57 and 61).

Alternative Form Available

Surry County (Va.) Register of Free Negroes, 1794-1803, is also available in a bound volume of photostats (negative).

Historical Information

Surry County formed from James City County about 1652.

An act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1803 required every free negro or mulatto to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the city clerk.

Created in 1652. Order books for 1718–1741 and various other early volumes are fragmentary. Most loose records prior to 1806 are missing. Courthouse fires in 1906 and 1922 did not result in loss of records, however, because at that time records were housed in a separate clerk’s office.

 Scope and Content

Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862. The collection contains Free Negro Registers, 1794 to 1862, and Criminal Proceedings Against Free Persons, Slaves, etc., 1742-1822. Free negro registers document the name, age, physical appearance, and evidence of free birth or emancipation for free African Americans living in Surry County from 1794 to 1862. Additional information, such as names of spouses or parents or county of birth, is sometimes included. Criminal Proceedings are a summary record of criminal proceedings brought against slaves and free African Americans from 1742 to 1822.

Reel 49 contains a Register of Free Negro for the years 1794-1803 (18 images); Reel 57 contains a Register of Free Negroes for the years 1847-1862 (126 images), and Reel 61 contains the Criminal Proceedings, 1742-1822 (132 images) and a Register of Free Negroes for the years 1803-1847 (229 images).

Adjunct Descriptive Data Related Material

Surry County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Surry County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available at Virginia Memory.

Index Terms Corporate Names: Surry County (Va.)--Circuit Court. Geographical Names: Surry County (Va.)--Virginia--18th century. Surry County (Va.)--Virginia--19th century. Subjects: Criminal law--Virginia--Surry County. Free African Americans--Virginia--Surry County. Slavery--Virginia--Surry County. Genre and Form Terms: Free negro and slave records--Virginia--Surry County. Judicial records--Virginia--Surry County. Local government records--Virginia--Surry County. Registers (lists)--Virginia--Surry County.