Category
Oral - Textual or Investigative
Description
In 1782 an act of the Virginia General Assembly enabled the voluntary manumission (freeing) of thousands of slaves in the 80 or so years prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The motivation of each slave holder to free their slaves varied from individual to individual and many of the "freedom documents" give some indication as to their thoughts, beliefs, and intentions. Though it is an unfortunate historical reality that slaves were treated as chattel property, this led to a documentation process in the court system that preserved these documents for future study. In 2022, Stephen Andrew Langland of the Helm School of Government completed his dissertation on five counties directly around Lynchburg, Virginia. After his dissertation, the Helm School expanded the project to include the entire state of Virginia. As an intern to the Helm School, and representing the History Department, there are now sixteen counties completed with about forty others in various stages of completion. With the documentation and cataloging of sixteen counties around and near Lynchburg, Virginia, a comparison of the manumitted, willed, or paid to free themselves and a look at the ages of the slaves when they were freed will be completed. The information, once compiled, will tell us the ratios of slaves freed based on the categories and a representation of the average ages when set free. With this paper the questions now to be asked is “will there be a concentration of freedoms by year and a correlation to things going on in history at that time, and also were slaves given their freedom more through wills, by manumission by the owner of the slave(s), or by purchases of freedom?” Through the continuation of data collection and compilation of raw data into the Manumission Database, the data will be taken and formatted to address the questions raised above. To collect the data, the continuing use of multiple sources such as the “Free Nigro Registry,” usually compiled by county, will be used. The collection of the raw data continues to lead us to sources of raw data that will also be used in an attempt to have a more complete database for future generations. With a compilation of the data of the completed counties the hope is to understand the ratio of manumissions, wills, or of the ones that bought their freedom. Also, there will be a comparison of the ages of the individuals and a comparison of dates to understand which years were the years of the most manumissions, wills, or buying of freedom. It is this projects belief that there will be a correlation between freedoms and the events of history between 1782 and the civil war. With the ratio of slaves that were freed by the passing of a slave owner compared to slaves given their freedom during the life of the slave owner, or by the purchase of their freedom the data will be able to give the answers to the raised questions. With a continuation of the project there is the hope that the completion of the state of Virginia will bring about a better understanding of the mindset of the individuals that owned slaves. Further questions can also then be looked at such as “was there a religious, political, personal, or maybe even a moral motivation or obligation with each release.”
Manumission, Willed, or Buying Their Freedom - From the Colonization of The New World to The Civil War
Oral - Textual or Investigative
In 1782 an act of the Virginia General Assembly enabled the voluntary manumission (freeing) of thousands of slaves in the 80 or so years prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The motivation of each slave holder to free their slaves varied from individual to individual and many of the "freedom documents" give some indication as to their thoughts, beliefs, and intentions. Though it is an unfortunate historical reality that slaves were treated as chattel property, this led to a documentation process in the court system that preserved these documents for future study. In 2022, Stephen Andrew Langland of the Helm School of Government completed his dissertation on five counties directly around Lynchburg, Virginia. After his dissertation, the Helm School expanded the project to include the entire state of Virginia. As an intern to the Helm School, and representing the History Department, there are now sixteen counties completed with about forty others in various stages of completion. With the documentation and cataloging of sixteen counties around and near Lynchburg, Virginia, a comparison of the manumitted, willed, or paid to free themselves and a look at the ages of the slaves when they were freed will be completed. The information, once compiled, will tell us the ratios of slaves freed based on the categories and a representation of the average ages when set free. With this paper the questions now to be asked is “will there be a concentration of freedoms by year and a correlation to things going on in history at that time, and also were slaves given their freedom more through wills, by manumission by the owner of the slave(s), or by purchases of freedom?” Through the continuation of data collection and compilation of raw data into the Manumission Database, the data will be taken and formatted to address the questions raised above. To collect the data, the continuing use of multiple sources such as the “Free Nigro Registry,” usually compiled by county, will be used. The collection of the raw data continues to lead us to sources of raw data that will also be used in an attempt to have a more complete database for future generations. With a compilation of the data of the completed counties the hope is to understand the ratio of manumissions, wills, or of the ones that bought their freedom. Also, there will be a comparison of the ages of the individuals and a comparison of dates to understand which years were the years of the most manumissions, wills, or buying of freedom. It is this projects belief that there will be a correlation between freedoms and the events of history between 1782 and the civil war. With the ratio of slaves that were freed by the passing of a slave owner compared to slaves given their freedom during the life of the slave owner, or by the purchase of their freedom the data will be able to give the answers to the raised questions. With a continuation of the project there is the hope that the completion of the state of Virginia will bring about a better understanding of the mindset of the individuals that owned slaves. Further questions can also then be looked at such as “was there a religious, political, personal, or maybe even a moral motivation or obligation with each release.”
Comments
Graduate