Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Caroline County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures,1826 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

Caroline County (Va.) Apprenticeship indentures,1826. Local government records collection, Caroline County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Caroline County in an undated accession.

Processing Information

The Apprenticeship indentures,1826, were originally described as part of the Caroline County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, but were removed to the present Caroline County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, in June 2024

Additional apprentice indentures may be located in the Caroline County (Va.) Judgments or Caroline County (Va.) Papers Ended. Both of these record sets are largely unprocessed.

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.

Encoded by M. Mason, June 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: Caroline County was named for Caroline of Anspach, wife of King George II. It was formed from Essex, King and Queen, and King William Counties on 1 May 1728, and additional parts of King and Queen County were added in 1742 and in 1763.

Lost Locality Note: Created in 1728. Most loose records and deed books prior to 1836 and will books prior to 1853 were stolen, mutilated, and/or destroyed by Union troops who ransacked the courthouse in May 1864. A near-complete run of order books exists.

Scope and Content

Caroline County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1826, consist of one record calling for Robert Mallory to appear at the next court to present any evidence as to why the "indentures made by the overseers of this county binding the said Beverly [a "free boy of colour"] as an apprentice to the said Mallory should not be revoked and overtured."

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Caroline County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1788-1864

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

Additional Caroline 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."

Caroline County (Va.)is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Caroline County Court Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data