Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Fluvanna County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1800-1865, undated. Local government records collection, Fluvanna County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Fluvanna County.

Historical Information

Fluvanna County was named after the eighteenth-century term for the upper James River. The name, meaning river of Anne, was given in honor of Queen Anne of England. The county was formed from Albemarle County in 1777.

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 county clerk.

In 1806, the General Assembly moved to remove the free Negro population from Virginia with a law that stated that all emancipated slaves, freed after May 1, 1806, who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year, would forfeit their right to freedom and be sold by the Overseers of the Poor for the benefit of the parish. Families wishing to stay were to petition the legislature through the local county court. Beginning in 1837, freed slaves could petition the local courts for permission to remain.

Scope and Content

Fluvanna County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1800-1865, n.d., consist of free negro registrations and certificates (1802-1861, n.d.), appraisements of slaves requisitioned for public use (1865), and miscellaneous records including photocopies of documents related to free negroes.

Free negro registrations and certificates (1802-1861, n.d.) gives the registration number, age, name, color, stature, marks or scars, in what court the person was emancipated or whether the person was born free. Some clerks recorded additional information not required by law. Many of the registrations were probably presented as proof of legal free status in another locality in order to achieve registration in Fluvanna. These papers include several registrations from 1851-1852 that were in a wrapper titled "free negro papers renewed." Certificates are usually letters or affidavits from an individual attesting to their knowledge of a free negro and how this person came to be free.

Appraisements of slaves requisitioned for public use (1865) are lists of slaves by slaveowner along with the monetary value of the slave and whether they were accepted or rejected. In two out of the three lists, slave names are given.

Miscellaneous records include: photocopy of an apprentice bond between Jeffery Mayo, a free negro, and John Tinsley to learn the trade of shoemaker (1802); a list of the slaves giving ages, birthdates and names belonging to the estate of John Shepherd (undated, 1805 ca.); petition of Bob Williams to remain in the commonwealth (affidavits, orders and subpoenas only, 1841); photocopy of a list of free negroes to be hired for payment of the Revenue tax (1855); photocopy of a list of delinquent free negroes (1856); photocopy of a list of delinquent free negroes and mulattoes (1859); and three letters relating to the requisition of slaves to work on fortifications (1864).

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Fluvanna County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Apprentices -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Confederate States of America -- Defenses.
• Fluvanna County (Va.) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- African Americans.
• Free African Americans -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Slave labor -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Slaveholders -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Slaves -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Tax collection -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.

Geographical Names:

• Fluvanna County (Va.) -- History -- 19th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Bonds (legal records) -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Certificates -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Free negro and slave records -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Free papers -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Indentures -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Letters (correspondence) -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Lists -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.
• Registrations -- Virginia -- Fluvanna County.