Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Pulaski County (Va.) Record Related to the Registration of Free Persons,1851-1864, 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

Pulaski County (Va.) Record Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1851-1864 [include series or specific volume title] Local government records collection, Pulaski County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Acquisition Information

Digital images of the original "Register of Free Negroes" 1851-1864 was transferred to the Library of Virginia in Fall 2024 under accession 54390. The Virginia Untold project manager worked with Professor Tal Stanley at Emory University and LVA acquired the images of the register entries he and his students captured for the Watershed Project

Processing Information

The Virginia Untold project manager worked with Professor Tal Stanley at Emory University and LVA acquired the images of the register entries he and his students captured for the Watershed Project. The register is captured at the back of the witness book and Dr. Stanley and his students only captured pages in the volume that related to registrations of free Black and Multiracial people.

During digitization, images were not captured for the entire volume. As the purpose of digitization was to capture the information for inclusion in Virginia Untold the decision was made that additional images for the whole volume were not a priority.

These records have been processed and indexed by L. Neuroth and other LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

Encoded by M. Mason, July 2025

Historical Information

Context for Record Type:

"Free Negro" Registers

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, colour, and stature, by whom, and in what court the said negro or mulatto was emancipated; or that such negro or mulatto was born free." The process was extended to counties in 1803. Although some clerks were already recording such features, an 1834 Act of Assembly made it a uniform requirement to record identifying marks and scars and the instrument of emancipation, whether by deed or will. This bound register often coincided with a loose certificate containing largely the same identifying information. Both the registration system and the process of renewal was enforced differently in the various Virginia localities. Thus, the information found in these registers may differ from year to year and across localities.

The register books resulting from the administration of the 1793 and 1803 Act of Assembly are evidence of Virginia legislators' reaction to a quickly growing free Black and multiracial population in Virginia in the post Revolutionary War period. Acts such as these allowed white officials to police the activities and movement of free Black community members throughout the state thereby restricting their autonomy.

"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 Note: Pulaski County was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish patriot who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War and who was killed during the siege of Savannah in 1779. It was formed from Montgomery and Wythe Counties in 1839. Part of Wythe County was added to Pulaski in 1862.

Scope and Content

Pulaski County (Va.) Records Relating to the Registration of Free Persons,1851-1864, consists of one "Free Negro" register, 1851-1864.

The digital images of Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Free Negroes,1851-1864, captures fifteen pages of register entries consisting of 32 registrations kept by Lynch. A. Currin, Clerk of the County Court for Pulaski County. The register numbering repeats registers entered 1851-1856 are numbered 1-16; registers entered 1857-1860 are numbered 1-13; and registers entered 1862-1864 are numbered 1-3. Some individuals are renewing their registration which may explain some of the repeating, however, the same individual does not always retain the same register number.

The volume also bares the title "Witness Book No. 2", however, content related to the portion of the volume was not captured during digitization.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

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

Additional Pulaski County (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia.Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Original "Register of Free Negroes," 1851-1864 volume retained in locality at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum.