A Guide to the Warren County (Va.) Warren County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1830-1882
A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Phone: (804) 692-3888 (Archives Reference)
Fax: (804) 692-3556 (Archives Reference)
Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov(Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/
© 2013 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.
Processed by: Ed Jordan
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
Warren County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1830-1878, 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
Warren County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1830-1882. Local government records collection, Warren County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
Acquisition Information
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Warren County in an undated accession.
Processing Information
Warren County Apprenticeship indentures, 1830-1878, of Black and multiracial individuals are housed with the Warren County (Va.) Overseers of the Poor Records but the indentures pertaining to Black and multiracial individuals were indexed in 2018 Ed Jordan for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.
Ecoded by Louise Jones, 2013; Edited by M. Mason January 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: Warren County was named for Joseph Warren , the revolutionary patriot who sent Paul Revere and William Dawes on their famous rides and who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The county was formed from Frederick and Shenandoah counties in 1836.
Scope and Content
Warren County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1830-1882, 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.
Related Material
See also: Warren County (Va.)Overseers of the Poor Records, 1836-1914
See also: Warren County (Va.)Free and Enslaved Records, 1836-1861
Records related to free and enslaved people of Warren County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.
Additional Warren 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."