Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Amherst County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1806, involving Black and multiracial individuals are 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

Amherst County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1806. Local government records collection, Amherst County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Amherst County (Va.) in 2022 under accession number 53740.

Processing Information

Amherst County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures of Black and multiracial individuals were removed from the Amherst County (Va.) Deeds [under accession 53740] by E. Jordan in 2023. L. Neuroth later indexed the indentures pertaining to Black and multiracial individuals for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

Encoded by M. Mason: August 2023; updated by C. Collins: December 2024.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type : In 1765, the General Assembly established that illegitimate children of "woman servants, Negroes, white women by Negroes were to be bound out" until the age of 21 for males and 18 for females. In the late eighteenth century, the General Assembly established the Overseers of the Poor, an appointed body that provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for people who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. They also bound out children whose parents could not support them and those who were orphaned through apprenticeship contracts. These agreements arranged for white children to be taught a trade or domestic skills as well as educated in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1805, the General Assembly amended the previous act to no longer require the master of "black or mulatto orphans" to teach reading, writing, or arithmetic, with the intent that this would prevent Black children from learning these skills.

Locality History: Amherst County was named for Major General Jeffery Amherst, British commander in North America during the latter part of the French and Indian War and governor of Virginia from 1759 to 1768. It was formed from Albemarle County in 1761. Islands in the Fluvanna (now the James) River were added in 1770.

Scope and Content

Amherst County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1806, consists of contracts or agreements binding out white, Black, or multiracial children, sometimes those who were orphaned, to learn a particular trade or craft. These indentures may be written agreements between the family of the apprentice and those responsible for the indentured. In many cases this includes the direct involvement of the Overseers of the Poor. They typically contain the name of the person or institution binding out, the person to whom bound, the name of the person being indentured, the length of the apprenticeship, and the responsibilities of the person taking on the indenture.

This record set includes only two indentures. The indentures are both dated 21 July 1806 and bind out Moses Smith and Rueben Smith, both Free Black children, to John Hawkins, a white man, to learn the trade of carpentry.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Amherst County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1816-1826

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

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data