Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

"Runaway” Record, 1832, is digitized and available through Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Wythe County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1832-1838. Local government records collection, Wythe County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of records from Wythe County in 1999 under accession number 36884 and in 2022 under accession number 53665.

Processing Information

List of free persons located in locked cabinet Wythe County Court house and photocopied for access in 1999. “Runaway” record was removed from other items previously stored in a filing cabinet at the Wythe County Circuit Court in 2022 and processed and indexed by Lydia Neuroth for the purposes of digitizing it for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

“List of Free Negroes within the District of Joseph J. Graham commissioner of Revenue for the County of Wythe,” 1838 was previously described separately but was moved into the “Free and Enslaved” record in September 2023

Encoded by : C. OBrion in 2006; updated by M. Mason: September 2023

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: The Free and Enslaved Records collection is comprised of miscellaneous records related to the regulation and policing of both enslaved and free Black and Multiracial people in [this] locality. The localities/local government authorities were largely responsible for enforcing laws that restricted the movement of enslaved and free Black and multiracial people and the resulting documentation was often filed in the circuit courts. The ways in which local authorities enacted legal measures against or on behalf of enslaved and free Black and multiracial people varied from locality to locality; therefore records were not necessarily standardized or filed and retained in a consistent manner. This collection is topical and a means by which to compile miscellaneous documents related to free and enslaved people that are not established local government record types.

Locality History: Wythe County was named for George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and chancellor of Virginia in 1789 when Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County. Part of Grayson County was added later.

Scope and Content

Wythe County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1832-1838, consists of one list of free persons and one record concerning a “runaway” enslaved man.

The “List of Free Negroes within the District of Joseph J. Graham commissioner of Revenue for the County of Wythe,” 1838, was compiled by Joseph J. Graham for tax purposes. This list documents the name, gender, residence, and occupation of 28 free African Americans living in Wythe County in 1838. The names include Stanfield Drew, Robert Drew, Jno. Drew, Henry Drew, Lewis Drew, Thos. Jesse. Honor Drew, Sally Hale, Hamblin Hitchcock, Thos. Shaffer, B. Manly and family, Baldy Stuat [possibly Stuart], Sandy Stuart, Lucinda Stuart, Will Crockett, Jas. Hill, Lazarus Hill, Thos. Finley and family, Randal Finley and family, Robert Wilson, Richard Wilson, Booker Hunley, Sandy Hunley, Wm. Hunley, Lucy Nelson, and Abraham Finley.

The second item is a valuation, 1832 October, made by sworn individuals [potentially local commissioners] setting the value of Charles, an enslaved Black man who is being held in the county jail as a freedom seeker, at $350.

Arrangement

Alphabetical by record type then arranged chronologically

Series I: Free and Enslaved Records, 1832-1838

Related Material

See also: Wythe County (Va.) Freedom Suits, 1820

See also: Wythe County (Va.) Certificates of Importation, 1818-1819

Records related to free and enslaved people of Wythe County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Additional Wythe County (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia.Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Adjunct Descriptive Data