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Northumberland County (Va.) Citizens' Claims of Property Lost to British Army, 1815. Local government records collection, Northumberland County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Northumberland County under the accession number 43283.
Due to various grievences such as the impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, the United States government declared war on Great Britian in June 1812. In December 1814, the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent which was ratified by Congress in February 1815 and officially ended the war.
As part of this treaty, England agreed to turn over to their American owners those slaves who had escaped to or been taken by British forces during the war. However, instead of returning these individuals, the British government eventually chose to monetarily compensate the slave owners.
Northumberland County probably was named for the English county. It was formed about 1645 from the district of Chickacoan, the early-seventeenth-century name for the region between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers.
Northumberland County (Va.) Citizens' Claims of Property Lost to British Army, 1815, includes inventories made by citizens of Northumberland County that record a listing of the slaves they claimed were taken by the British military between 1812 and 1814. Information found in the inventories include the slaves' names, value, age, occupation, date they escaped or were taken, and name of the individual making the claim.