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 enslavers to treat enslaved people as personal possessions in the same manner as livestock, farm equipment, or household items. Enslaved people could be bought or sold without regard to their personal relationships or free will. Bills of sale record the name of the seller, the names of enslaved people being sold and their price, and the name of the buyer. Given that they involved a property transaction, bills of sale were commonly recorded and filed with deeds in the local court. However, there was no official requirement that the transfer of an enslaved person be recorded unless necessary for legal purposes such as a court case or an estate settlement. Enslaved people could also be transferred through a deed of gift, there was no money transaction involved in this case, which distinguishes this record from a bill of sale. Enslavers and their family members often transferred enslaved people between themselves in this manner.

Deeds, likewise are written agreements which convey title of property, such as an enslaved person, from one individual to another. Deeds can involve the voluntary transfer of enslaved people between family members with no financial transaction involved. Deeds record name(s) of the grantor(s), grantee(s), and enslaved people. Deeds were proved and recorded in the local court.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.

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, with their names, sex, place of abode, and trades. This collection includes those lists as well as “Free Negro Tax Lists”; and “Free Negro Delinquent Tax Lists.”

For many years in Virginia, each adult male was required to pay a flat tax ranging somewhere between 30 to 65 cents to fund county government operation. However, in the 1810s, Virginia imposed a “specific tax” exclusively on free Black individuals. The tax rate varied throughout the years leading up to the Civil War, but for the most part hovered around $1. Many Black individuals already struggled to pay the county levy, and Virginia legislators intended that an additional tax would further restrict autonomy. Several laws passed in 1782, 1814, and 1820 allowed sheriffs to hire out Black tax delinquents (those who did not pay their levy). Delinquent tax lists include names of free Black individuals returned delinquent and sometimes why they were returned, such as "no property," "removed," or "not found.” In addition to representing blatant taxation without representation, these hiring-out scenarios were largely exploitative.

Tax collection and hiring out tax delinquents was not strictly enforced and varied from each locality. For a time in the late 1830s and early 1840s, taxes were not even collected. By the 1850s, however, Virginia found a way to use the money collected from free Black residents to fund their removal from the state. In 1853, the General Assembly passed a law allowing the taxes raised on free Black men and women to be collected in a fund to be applied to the removal of these individuals as a part of the recolonization effort. See Colonization Records for more.

Descriptions included in this dataset are drawn directly from the original documents and may contain language which is now deemed offensive.

This dataset provides summary statistics for the number of children participating in school nutrition programs in Virginia for program year 2019-2020. These programs, School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP), provide nutritious meals to students at participating schools (and to children in residential child care institutions). Eligible students receive free or reduced-price meals.

This is a draft dataset

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 craft. These indentures may be written agreements between the family of the apprentice and those responsible for the indentured. 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.

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 1792, the General Assembly transferred this responsibility to the Overseers of the Poor. White children were to be taught various skills including 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. There are documented cases of indenture holders treating Black apprentices cruelly, or not releasing apprentices at the end of their indenture. White authorities also used their power to apprentice Black children without the permission of their families. Free Black men and women who had petitioned to be re-enslaved (see also Petitions for Re-Enslavement) were known to use this tool as a way of preserving the integrity of their families. Some parents bound out their children to a chosen master for a finite period of time, hopefully ensuring that the children would not be split up and remain free.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.

Certificates of Importation (sometimes entitled a certificate of non-importation) are primarily oaths by enslavers agreeing that they have not imported enslaved people from Africa and that they have not brought the enslaved person into Virginia for the purpose of selling them. Virginia was one of the first newly formed states to outlaw the importation of enslaved people for sale. In 1778, Governor Patrick Henry enacted legislation preventing importation of enslaved people into the commonwealth. Those that did bring their enslaved people were required to register them with the county court and sign a certificate of importation agreeing that they were not bringing enslaved people into the commonwealth with the intent to sell. The enslaved person is sometimes named, but not always, and occasionally information is given as to age, birthdate, and the state from which the individuals were moving. According to Section 3 of the act “every slave imported into this commonwealth contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall upon such importation become free.” By this clause, those enslaved people who were brought into Virginia illegally could pursue their freedom in the local courts. See Freedom Suits in which many people took action to sue for their freedom on the basis of this clause.


Data on this spreadsheet is drawn directly from historical documents and may contain language that is now considered offensive.

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. The coroner would summon a jury of twelve white men, usually prominent citizens of that locality, to assist him in determining cause of death. The jury viewed the body of the deceased and heard the testimony of witnesses which did include both white and Black perspectives. This witness testimony was recorded and after seeing and hearing the evidence, a white jury delivered in writing to the coroner their conclusion concerning cause of death referred to as the inquisition. These causes of death would be determined by a white perspective and Black individuals were only consulted; they were never in a position to make decisions. If a criminal act was determined to be the cause of death, the coroner delivered the guilty person to the sheriff and the inquests would be used as evidence in the criminal trial. In this case, coroner’s inquisitions were filed with the trial papers. See Commonwealth Causes for more. If there was not a trial, coroner’s inquisitions were filed separately and will likely appear in this collection as a stand alone set of documents.

Documents commonly found in coroner’s inquisitions include the inquisition, depositions, and summons. Information found in the inquisition include the name of the coroner, the names of the jurors, the name and age of the deceased if known, gender and race of the deceased, and when, how, and by what means the deceased came to his or her death. If the coroner knew the deceased person to be Black or multiracial, the inquest should identify the person as enslaved; a “free Negro”; a “person of color”; or a “mulatto.” If the coroner knew the deceased person to be enslaved, the inquest should include their name, their enslaver and the enslaver’s residence. Information found in the depositions include the name of the deponent and his or her account of the circumstances that led to the death of the deceased. Unlike many other legal proceedings in antebellum Virginia, enslaved people were permitted to provide depositions for coroners’ inquisitions.

This data is subset focusing on records where African Americans were named either as the deceased or persons of interest involved in the inquest and is a by-product of indexing done for the Virginia Untold: African American Narrative digital collection.

Some data in this collection is drawn directly from the original historical records (see column descriptions) and may contain terminology which is now deemed offensive.

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 in Virginia with their free status. An early 1691 law required a formerly enslaved person to relocate outside the commonwealth within six months of emancipation. In 1782, Virginia law allowed enslavers to emancipate their enslaved people “by last will and testament or other instrument in writing sealed and witnessed to emancipate and set free his slave or slaves.” Realizing that many enslavers were taking advantage of this, the Virginia General Assembly reacted by trying to suppress the growing number of free Black and multiracial people in the commonwealth. They passed a law stating that all formerly enslaved people freed after May 1, 1806 who remained in Virginia more than twelve months could be put on trial by the state. After 1831, if these people were found guilty, they could be re-enslaved and sold by state officials. The proceeds from the sale went to the state treasury, and often, records of those sales can be found in the Public Claims records from the Auditor of Public Accounts. The act required individuals who wished to remain in the commonwealth to petition the state legislature. Beginning in 1837, formerly enslaved individuals could petition the local courts directly for permission. The law required them to place notice on the courthouse door for two months before a hearing.

The documents in these cases will include: the name(s) of the petitioner(s), the circumstances of free status, and a request to remain in the county. Application packets might also include supporting documents such as the formerly enslaved person’s register (for more, see Free Black Registrations), or other evidence for emancipation such as a copy of a will or deed of emancipation. As with the case of obtaining a free Black registration, individuals needed to prove that they had in fact been emancipated. Free Black men and women also relied on their reputation in the local communities and understood the weight of white individuals’ good words in gaining and retaining free status. Applications may also include witness statements, known as affidavits, with signatures and names of white citizens testifying to the free status and character of the petitioner.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.

A number of education data sets are available for use by policymakers, educators, the public, program directors and researchers through the Virginia Longitudinal Data System.
For a complete list of all the table descriptions and data elements, refer to the data dictionary
https://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/research_data/data_files/data_dictionary.pdf

These datasets are intended to be used in applications that have filtering and query building capabilities such as spreadsheet applications ( MS Excel or Numbers), analytical applications (SPSS or SAS), or development-type applications. The datasets are compiled using all the possible combinations of all the demographics about students so each row within the dataset contains a rate or count in addition to the demographics used to arrive at the rate or count.

The purpose of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program is to provide a nutritional supplement to eligible students who are learning in fully remote or hybrid modalities due to COVID-19-related school closures. This is the number of children receiving P-EBT benefits for School Year 2020-2021.