A Guide to the Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1800

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1800, 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.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1800. Local government records collection, Alexandria (Va.) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Alexandria (Va.) as part of an undated accession.

Processing Information

Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures were originally described as part of the Alexandria (Va.) "Free Negro" and Slave Records, 1800-1853, but were removed to the present Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1800, record to enhance discoverability in June 2025.

These records were processed, scanned, and indexed by S. Nerney, L. Neuroth, and LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative at an unknown date.

Encoded by S. Nerney: 2007; updated by C. Collins: June 2025.

Historical Information

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: Alexandria in Fairfax and Arlington Counties, was named for John Alexander, an early owner of the tract in Fairfax County on which the town was located. The act to establish Alexandria was passed in 1749. Its site had previously been known as Hunting Creek Warehouse and as Belhaven. Alexandria was incorporated as a town in 1779 and was ceded to the federal government in 1789 for use as part of the site of the new national capital. It officially became part of the District of Columbia in 1801 and was renamed Alexandria County by Congress. By an act of 9 July 1846, Alexandria County, including the town of Alexandria, was retroceded to Virginia, which took jurisdiction over the area on 20 March 1847. The town was incorporated as a city in 1852.

Scope and Content

Alexandria (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1800, 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.

Currently, identified material only include indentures of Black and Multiracial children. Additional apprenticeship indentures concerning white children may remain in unprocessed records.

These records are comprised of an indenture, 1800, in which Charles, enslaved by Robert Townshend Hooe, was bound to John Hughes to be "taught and Instructed in the Art Mystery and Business of a Ship Carpenter." The indenture directs that Charles be emancipated following the conclusion of the apprenticeship.