30 datasets found

Coroner’s Inquisitions are investigations into the deaths of individuals who died by a sudden, violent, unnatural, or suspicious manner, or who died without medical attendance....

Commonwealth causes are criminal court cases filed by the state government that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts...

Documents in this collection differ from the loose documents in the “Free Negro” Registrations collection. Documents in this collection represent pages from bound registers...

Bills of sale are written agreements which convey title of property, including enslaved people, from seller to buyer. Under the system of chattel slavery, laws permitted...

Documents in this collection differ from the bound volumes referred to as “registers.” They are registration records typically appearing in the form of certificates or...

Sometimes referred to as “Applications to Remain”, these records are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain...

Deeds of emancipation and manumission record an enslavers’ intent to emancipate enslaved people from bondage. In 1726, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law allowing...

Freedom suits are lawsuits initiated by enslaved people seeking to gain their freedom. This collection includes petitions, records of suits, depositions, affidavits, and wills....

Colonization records include documents from two government agencies that raised money and support for the removal of formerly enslaved people to Liberia. As early as 1691, the...

Certificates of Importation (sometimes entitled a certificate of non-importation) are primarily oaths by enslavers agreeing that they have not imported enslaved people from...

Localities and individuals submitted public claims to the Auditor of Public Accounts to obtain payment for services rendered to the state. The Auditor of Public Accounts was the...

This collection consists of work contracts between formerly enslaved individuals and employers enacted during the operation of the Freedmen’s Bureau. On March 3, 1865, the...

In 1801, the Virginia Legislature passed an act requiring commissioners of the revenue to annually return a complete list of all free Black Virginians within their districts,...

Indentures of apprenticeship within Virginia Untold are composed of agreements binding out free Black and multiracial individuals, often children, to learn a particular trade or...

A “runaway slave record,” or as it is officially titled, “Runaway and Escaped Slaves Records, 1794, 1806-1863,” include accounts, correspondence, receipts, and reports...

The records found in this collection include requisition lists filed in local courts and payroll records of the Virginia Engineer Department. Information found in these records...

This collection contains petitions of free Black individuals choosing to be re-enslaved. An act passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1806 required formerly enslaved people...

Petitions to the General Assembly were the primary catalyst for legislation in the commonwealth from 1776 until 1865. Public improvements, military claims, divorce, manumission...

Judgments contain civil suits that relate mainly to recovering debt owed to the plaintiff by the defendant. Should the defendant not have funds to repay the debt, the court...

Fiduciary records consist primarily of estate administrator settlements, estate inventories, dower allotments, estate divisions, estate sales, and guardian accounts involving...