Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865, 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

Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865. Local government records collection, Albemarle County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

Acquisition Information

These records were transferred to the Library of Virginia from Albemarle County (Va.) as part of an undated accession.

Processing Information

"Free Negro" registrations, affidavits, and certificates, 1802-1865, were originally described as part of the Albemarle County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1799-1870, but were removed to the present Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865, record to enhance the context between record types in March 2025.

During the redescription process in March 2025, Local Records staff, in partnership with the Virginia Untold Project Manager, attempted to determine the whereabouts of a "Free Negro" register for Albemarle County or any relevant information thereto. While there does not appear to be an extant "Free Negro" register for Albemarle County, it was discovered that additional information related to the registration of free persons is inconsistently recorded in several Albemarle County minute and order books.

These records were processed, scanned, and indexed by 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 C. Collins: April 2025.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type:

"Free Negro" Registrations

In 1793, the Virginia General Assembly specified that "free Negroes or mulattoes" were required to "be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the town clerk, which shall specify age, name, color, status and by whom, and in what court emancipated." These entries often coincided with the creation of a loose certificate containing largely the same identifying information.

Documents in this record group differ from the bound volumes referred to as "registers." These registration records typically appear in the form of certificates or handwritten statements recording the free status of a Black or Multiracial person. They can include the free person's name, sometimes age, a brief physical description, and the circumstances of the person's freedom or emancipation, parents, former enslaver, place or date of emancipation. There are also affidavits that were given by individuals affirming a free person's status, as well as written descriptions of free people. In some cases, a person would not have a registration to submit to the court. Instead, they produced some other form of identification proving their free status, for example, a deed of emancipation, a will, an apprenticeship indenture, or an affidavit of someone testifying to their character and status.

Locality History: Albemarle County was named for William Anne Keppel, second earl of Albemarle, and governor of Virginia from 1737 to 1754. It was created by a statute of 1744 and formed from Goochland County; part of Louisa County was added in 1761 and islands in the Fluvanna (now the James) River in 1770. The court met for the first time on 8 February 1745. The county seat is the city of Charlottesville.

Lost Locality Note: All order books except the first and many loose papers between 1748 and 1781 were destroyed by British general Banastre Tarleton's raid on Charlottesville in 1781 during the Revolutionary War.

Scope and Content

Albemarle County (Va.) Records related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1802-1865, consist of approximately 467 "Free Negro" registrations, affidavits, and certificates. Some free registrations originated in other Virginia localities, such as Caroline County, Goochland County, and the City of Fredericksburg. Upon their removal to Albemarle County, individuals surrendered their free papers to the court to prove their free status. In such cases, they would have received an Albemarle County free registration to replace the document(s) handed over to the court. The registrations, affidavits, and certificates document the free person's name, sometimes age, a brief physical description, and the circumstances of the person's freedom or emancipation, parents, former enslaver, place or date of emancipation.

There does not appear to be an extant Albemarle County "Free Negro" register. However, additional information related to the registration of free persons in the county is inconsistently documented in several Albemarle County minute books, such as Albemarle County (Va.) Minute Book, 1811-1814, and order books, like Albemarle County (Va.) Order Book, 1806-1807. Not all minute and order books have been surveyed for such information at this time.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Albemarle County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1799-1870

Records related to free and enslaved people of Albemarle County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Additional Albemarle 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."

Albemarle County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Albemarle County records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data