Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Accomack County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1793-1863, 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

Accomack County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1793-1863. Local government records collection, Accomack County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These records were transferred to the Library of Virginia from Accomack County (Va.) in 2023 under accession number 54030 and as part of an undated accession. Digital images of the register were produced by the Library of Virginia Imaging Services in 2024 and accessioned under accession number 54030.

Alternative Form Available

The Accomack County (Va.) Register of "Free Negroes," circa 1806-1863, is available on microfilm, Accomack County (Va.) Reel No. 316 and 326.

Processing Information

"Free Negro" registrations and related affidavits, certificates, and orders, 1793-1861, were originally described as part of the Accomack County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1758, 1799-1861, but were removed to the present Accomack County (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1793-1863, to enhance the context between record types in August 2024.

The microfilm of the Register of "Free Negroes” was originally described as Accomack County (Va.) Register of "Free Negroes," 1785-1863, but was removed to the present Accomack County (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1793-1863, to enhance the context between record types in August 2024.

These records have been processed, scanned, and indexed by L. Neuroth and other LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

The register was microfilmed by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division in 1979. Registration numbers 373-385 are available on microfilm but are missing from the original volume [documented 2007].

Encoded by S. Nerney: March 2006; updated by C. Collins: August 2024.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type:

"Free Negro" Registers

In 1793, the Virginia General Assembly specified that "free Negroes or mulattoes" were required to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the town clerk, which shall specify "age, name, colour, and stature, by whom, and in what court the said negro or mulatto was emancipated; or that such negro or mulatto was born free." The process was extended to counties in 1803. Although some clerks were already recording such features, an 1834 Act of Assembly made it a uniform requirement to record identifying marks and scars and the instrument of emancipation, whether by deed or will. This bound register often coincided with a loose certificate containing largely the same identifying information. Both the registration system and the process of renewal was enforced differently in the various Virginia localities. Thus, the information found in these registers may differ from year to year and across localities.

The register books resulting from the administration of the 1793 and 1803 Act of Assembly are evidence of Virginia legislators' reaction to a quickly growing free Black and multiracial population in Virginia in the post Revolutionary War period. Acts such as these allowed white officials to police the activities and movement of free Black community members throughout the state thereby restricting their autonomy.

"Free Negro" Registrations

In 1793, the Virginia General Assembly specified that "free Negroes or mulattoes" were required to "be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the town clerk, which shall specify age, name, color, status and by whom, and in what court emancipated." These entries often coincided with the creation of a loose certificate containing largely the same identifying information.

Documents in this record group differ from the bound volumes referred to as "registers." These registration records typically appear in the form of certificates or handwritten statements recording the free status of a Black or multiracial person. They can include the free person's name, sometimes age, a brief physical description, and the circumstances of the person's freedom or emancipation, parents, former enslaver, place or date of emancipation. There are also affidavits that were given by individuals affirming a free person's status, as well as written descriptions of free people. In some cases, a person would not have a registration to submit to the court. Instead they produced some other form of identification proving their free status, for example, a deed of emancipation, a will, an apprenticeship indenture, or an affidavit of someone testifying to their character and status.

Locality History: Accomack County was named for the Accomac Indians, who lived on the Eastern Shore at the time of the first English settlement in Virginia. The word means "on-the-other-side-of-water place" or "across the water." It was one of the original eight shires, or counties, first enumerated in 1634 and spelled Accomac without the k. The county's name was changed to Northampton County in 1643. The present county was formed from Northampton about 1663. In October 1670, the General Assembly temporarily reunited Accomack and Northampton Counties as Northampton County. In November 1673, Accomack County was again separated from Northampton. In early records, the county’s name was spelled many ways. In 1940 the General Assembly adopted the present spelling, Accomack. The county gained a small part of the southern end of Smith’s Island from Somerset County, Maryland, in 1879, after the United States had approved boundary changes between Virginia and Maryland that had been agreed to in 1877. The county seat is Accomac.

Lost Locality Note: A significant number of loose records from the 1700s suffered extreme water and pest damage. Volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills exist.

Scope and Content

Accomack County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1793-1863, consist of one Register of "Free Negroes," circa 1806-1863; loose "free negro" registrations, 1805, 1822-1861; affidavits and certificates, 1793, 1822-1825, 1853, 1861; and orders, 1854, 1859.

Accomack County (Va.) Register of "Free Negroes," circa 1806-1863, kept by the clerk of the Circuit Court, records the registration of free Black and multiracial people of Black descent in Accomack County and covers the years roughly 1806-1863. The clerk recorded the registration number, age/year when born, name, color, stature, marks or scars, and in what court the person was emancipated or whether the person was born free.

The date registered is not recorded by the clerk until 1853. [Library of Virginia staff cross-referenced the register with the Accomack County Court Minute Books to determine the beginning of the volume to beginning in approximately 1806.]

The loose "free negro" registrations, 1805, 1822-1861, include the following registrations: Benjamin Cropper and Daniel (undated); Ruth Phillips (1805); Branson (1822); Charles and Liskey (1822); Darckey (1823); Peter (1823); Comfort (1826); Moses Jubilee (1831); Edmund Ashby (1837); James Ashby (1837); William Bechel (1844); Sam Sample (1848); Harriet Jubilee (1850); Mary Burton (1851); Joseph Piper (1853) [the back of the registration includes a copy of a deed of emancipation, 1834, written by Samuel Henderson which names George, Peter, and Joseph]; Stephen Finney (1853); Isaac Taylor (1854); Stratton Sample (1854); Lewis Ashby (1856); Amy Paramore (1857); Bill White (1860); Elizabeth Watson (1860); and Jesse White (1861).

The affidavits and certificates, 1793, 1822-1825, 1853, 1861, include two certificates, 1793, containing the opinion of Thomas Evans, an attorney, as to Robert [or Robin] and George's probable claim to freedom under the laws of Virginia; an affidavit, 1822, certifying the free status of Selah (or Lelah), alias Fanny; a certificate, 1825, confirming the free status of William Roan and Isaiah Watson; the affidavit, 1853, of Heley D. Bagwell, executor or Sarah (Sally) Bird, certifying that Leah, Jim, Agness, Lewis, Stran, Harry, Rachel, Sally, John, and Milly were emancipated by Bird's will and "may be registered as free negroes"; and a certificate, 1861, asking that Jessee, emancipated by William White, Sr., be given "his free papers."

The orders, 1854, 1859, are comprised of an order, 1854, relative to an application to register as free persons submitted by Shadrach (68), Nancy (75), Leah (65), Rody (45), Betty (25), Emmy (25), Daniel (12 to 15), Ann (12 to 14), Leah (8 to 10), and Jacob (20), who were emancipated by the will of Margaret (Peggy) Bayly (Bayley). The court ordered that Shadrach, Nancy, and Leah be refused registration, and Rody, Betty, Emmy, and Jacob be allowed to register. Nothing is specified in relation to Daniel, Ann, or Leah. Also included is an order, 1859, requesting that Clarissa Watts and Leah Wallop, Thomas Wallop, George Wallop, her children, be registered as "free negroes."

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Accomack County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1758, 1799-1861

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

Additional Accomack 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."

Accomack County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Accomack County Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data