Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Wythe County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1820 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

Wythe County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1820 Local Government Records Collection, Wythe County Court Records, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Wythe County in 2022 under accession number 53665.

Processing Information

Wythe County Freedom suits were originally filed with the locality's Chancery Causes but removed by Local Records staff during reprocessing of Chancery Causes in 2022 as staff determined the cases to be heard as judgments in law.

Encoded by M. Mason: September 2023.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: Freedom suits are lawsuits initiated by enslaved people seeking to gain their freedom. This collection includes petitions, records of suits, depositions, affidavits, and wills. They record enslaved peoples' arguments for freedom, how the individual came to be enslaved, ancestry of the enslaved person, and relationships between enslaved individuals and enslavers. Enslaved men and women sued for emancipation in freedom suits based on the following: they were descendant(s) of a free woman, sometimes either a white or Native American woman; failure of enslaver(s) to abide by the 1778 slave nonimportation act; or claimed to have been freed by their enslaver(s) by deed of emancipation or last will and testament. Petitioners suing for their freedom on the grounds they had a free mother applied the 1662 law passed by the General Assembly stating that "all children born in this country, shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother."

Locality History Note: Wythe County was named for George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and chancellor of Virginia in 1789 when Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County. Part of Grayson County was added in 1825.

Scope and Content

Wythe County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1820, consists of suits initiated by enslaved persons seeking to gain their freedom on the law side of the court. Cases are identified by style of suit consisting of plaintiff and defendant names.

Wythe County (Va.) Judgments Freedom Suits, 1820, contain three suits all related to the legal status of Rachel Findley, an enslaved woman. In Rachel Findley vs. John Draper Sr., 1820 May, Rachel claims that she is a free as she is the descendent of a "Indian woman" illegally taken by the Clay family of Powhatan County and enslaved. Rachel further states that this matter was previously settled when she and other members of her family received their freedom as a result of a 1773 court case heard in Powhatan County. Rachel attests that before receiving her freedom, Mathew Clay, her enslaver sold her to John Draper of Wythe County in order to evade the court's ruling. The court ruled in Rachel's favor securing the freedom she won forty years prior.

As a result of the above case, in Tim, etc vs. John Draper Sr., 1820 August, the court rules in the favor of Tim and Robin both children of Rachel Findley and likewise in the suit Judah, etc vs. John Draper Sr., 1820 October, Judah [also Judea], the child of Rachel Findley, and Judah's children Lockey, Rhoda, Sam, Abraham, Charlotte, and Lucinda, all received their freedom

Arrangement

This collection is arranged chronologically by date the suit ended

Related Material

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

Additional Wythe 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."

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Publication Note