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Library of Virginia
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Processed by: C. Freed
Pre-1867 Apprenticeship Indentures related to Black and multiracial individuals are digitized and available through Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.
There are no restrictions.
Amelia County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1736-1890. Local government records collection, Amelia County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Amelia County (Va.) in 2001 under accession numbers 37990, 37993, and 37995, and in 2003 under accession number 40724.
These records are believed to have been removed from Amelia County (Va.) Judgments, among other Amelia County records, by C. Freed circa 2005.
These records have been processed, scanned, and indexed by C. Freed, L. Neuroth, and LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.
Encoded by G. Crawford: April 2018; updated by C. Collins: January 2025.
Context for Record Type: 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 the late eighteenth century, the General Assembly established the Overseers of the Poor, an appointed body that provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for people who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. They also bound out children whose parents could not support them and those who were orphaned through apprenticeship contracts. These agreements arranged for white children to be taught a trade or domestic skills as well as educated in 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.
Locality History: Amelia County was named for Amelia Sophia Eleanora, daughter of King George II. It was formed from Prince George and Brunswick Counties by an act passed in 1734 to take effect on 25 March 1735. The county court first met on 9 May 1735. The county seat is Amelia.
Amelia County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1736-1890, consist of contracts or agreements binding out white, Black, or multiracial children, sometimes those who were orphaned, 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. In many cases this includes the direct involvement of the Overseers of the Poor. 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.
These records are comprised of 20 folders of indentures. Many of the apprentices bound out prior to 1867 are identified in the indentures as "free Blacks" or "free persons of color."
This collection is arranged
See also: Amelia County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1801-1866
For additional apprenticeship records, see also: Amelia County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1868
Records related to free and enslaved people of Amelia County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.
Additional Amelia County (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."