Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Free Registrations 1822-1863, 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

Richmond (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1822-1863. Local government records collection, Richmond (Va.) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in 1968 a transfer of court papers from the city of Richmond under accession number 26922 and in an undated accession.

Processing Information

The "Free Negro" Registration Records, 1822-1863, were originally described as part of the Richmond (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, but were removed to the present Richmond (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1822-1863 to enhance the context between the record types.

Richmond "Free Negro" Registration Records were removed from Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes and processed by L. Neuroth and G. Crawford between 2014 and 2022.

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

Encoded by M. Mason, March 2024

Historical Information

Context for Record Type:

"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 Note: The city of Richmond, located between Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, was named by William Byrd (1674-1744), who envisioned the development of a city at the falls of the James River and with the help of William Mayo laid out the town in 1737. The name probably came from the English borough of Richmond upon Thames, which Byrd visited on several occasions. Richmond was established in 1742 and in 1779 was designated the capital of Virginia effective 30 April 1780. It was incorporated as a town, although "stiled the city of Richmond," in 1782 and was incorporated as a city in 1842. It served as the capital of the Confederacy from mid-1861 to April 1865. Richmond was enlarged by the annexation of Manchester (or South Richmond) in 1910, and by the addition of Barton Heights, Fairmount, and Highland Park in 1914. Further annexations from Chesterfield County occurred in 1942 and 1970.

Lost Records Note: During the burning of Richmond on April 3, 1865, during the Civil War, Richmond circuit court judge John A. Meredith led efforts to save the circuit court records found at the State Court House. Rescuers successfully removed all the papers that were necessary to pending suits and many of the order books, but all of the wills and deed books were lost. Records of the superior court and circuit superior court of law and chancery were also destroyed. Most of the pre-Civil War Hustings Court records exist.

Scope and Content

Richmond (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1822-1863, consists of "Free Negro" Registrations.

"Free Negro" Registrations, 1822-1863, consists of 1 box of registrations which contain the name of free Black and multiracial persons; their sex; age; physical description/ complexion; and how they secured their freedom (born free or through a will or deed). These records contain a fair amount of genealogical information as individuals will particularly note matrilineal family lines to denote their free legal status.

Richmond (Va.) Minute Books, 1797-1866, about 30 volumes, contains additional information related to the registration of free persons in the city. It appears the minute books for Richmond recorded much of the information compiled by the clerk of the court to document the registration of free persons.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Richmond (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1800-1864

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

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

Richmond City is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond City Court Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data