A public claim is a record remitted to the Auditor of Public Accounts by a locality or individual in order to obtain payment for services rendered to the state. The Auditor of Public Accounts is the chief auditor and accountant of the General Assembly Auditing Committee and is responsible for conducting audits on all state entities that handle state funds. The Auditor of Public Accounts is also responsible for ensuring proper payments to localities and that those payments are issued in accordance with stablished rules and procedures.
The public claims found in Virginia Untold involve pre‐1865 enslaved people and free African Americans. During the antebellum period, the General Assembly passed increasingly restrictive laws in response to white fears of crime and insurrection by enslaved individuals. Procedures were established to compensate slaveholders for the loss of their property when enslaved people ran away or were imprisoned or executed. Some condemned enslaved people were transported beyond the state's boundaries to Africa. The American Colonization Society chartered ships to transport free African Americans and condemned enslaved people to Liberia.
The records contain affidavits, bonds, correspondence, local court records, death warrants, estate files, powers of attorney, receipts, sheriff certificates, and valuations of enslaved people and free African Americans convicted for capital crimes and sentenced to be executed or transported from the United States.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.

Freedom suits are law suits initiated by enslaved individuals seeking to gain their freedom. Predominant documents found in freedom suits include petitions, records of suits, depositions, affidavits, a n d wills. They record the enslaved individual's arguments for freedom, acquisition of the enslaved individuals by enslavers, ancestry, and relationships between the enslaved person and their enslaver. Enslaved people sued for emancipation in freedom suits based on the following: they were descendant(s) of a free female ancestor, occasionally a Native American; failure of enslaver(s) to abide by
the 1778 slave nonimportation act; or claimed to have been freed by enslaver(s) by deed of emancipation or last will and testament.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.

An act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1806 required formerly enslaved, now free individuals to leave the Commonwealth within a year of being granted their freedom. In 1856 another act passed by the Virginia legislature allowed free persons of color who desired to remain in the Commonwealth to petition for re‐‐‐enslavement and choose an enslaver and remain in the state. These petitions include the petitioner’s name, previous owner, means of emancipation, and desired enslaver.

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

The "Runaway Slaves" Records, include accounts, correspondence, receipts, and reports
concerning expenses incurred by localities related to the capture of enslaved people attempting to escape to freedom. Localities were reimbursed for the expenses of confining, feeding, and selling of self-emancipated enslaved people. Once the enslaved person was sold, the money was used to pay off the expenses, and the net
proceeds were sent to the Auditor of Public Accounts and deposited into the commonwealth's Literary Fund for public education. The collection also includes records that contain information related to enslaved people from multiple localities who escaped to United States military forces during the Civil War.

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

Virginia enacted legislation during the Civil War era to requisition free persons of color and enslaved people to work on fortifications and other works of the public defense around the Commonwealth. The records found in this collection include requisition lists filed in local courts and payroll records of the Virginia Engineering Department. Information found in these records include names of free persons of color and enslaved people, locality of origin, occupation, location of fortification, names of enslavers, and monetary value of enslaved people.

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

Commonwealth causes are criminal court cases filed by the state government that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts handed down by juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code.

This data includes Commonwealth causes found in Virginia Untold and so involve African-Americans in the antebellum period, either free or enslaved.
Common types of cases include those against enslavers who permitted enslaved individuals to go at large without permission, as well as those involving free African Americans accused of remaining in the Commonwealth more than one year following emancipation.

In 1806, the General Assembly passed a law stating that all emancipated individuals freed after May 1, 1806, were required to leave the Commonwealth.
Those who remained in the Commonwealth more than a year could be put on trial by the state, and if found guilty, would forfeit their right to freedom and be sold with the proceeds from the sale going to the state treasury.

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