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Library of Virginia
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Lunenburg County (Va.) Record Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1800-1865 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.
Lunenburg County (Va.) Record Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1818-1865. Local Government Records Collection , The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Loose registeration came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court records in an undated accession.
Lunenburg County (Va.) Free Negro Register, 1850-1865, came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court records under the accession number 43095. The Volume was microfilmed by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division.
Lunenburg County (Va.) List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes registered in the County of Lunenburg, 1818-1850 is available on microfilm, Reel 20.
Lunenburg County (Va.) Register of Free Negroes 1850-1865 is available on microfilm, Reels 376 or 381.
"Will Book No. 5 and List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes Registered in the County of Lunenburg," 1800-1850 came to the Library of Virginia for digitization in 2024 under accession 54075. The volume was then returned to the Clerk of the Circuit Court.
"Will Book No. 5 and List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes Registered in the County of Lunenburg," 1800-1850 was microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in the Lunenburg County courthouse on April 19, 1949 and was purchased by the Library of Virginia.
Register of Free Negroes, 1850-1865" microfilmed by the Library of Virginia Imaging Services Division in 1975.
Encoded by S. Nerney, 2006; Updated by M. Mason, February 2024.
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: Lunenburg County was named for George II, duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, a German possession of the Hanoverian kings of England. It was formed from Brunswick County in 1745.
Lunenburg County (Va.) Records Related to the Registration of Free Persons, 1800-1865, consists of two free register volumes, 1800-1865.
The first volume, "Will Book No. 5 and List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes Registered in the County of Lunenburg," 1800-1850, kept by the clerk of the circuit court firstly acts as Will Book No. 5, 1800-1802. This portion of the volume contains a 2 pages index for the wills and then approximately 89 pages of recorded wills. Following this portion of the volume begins the "List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes Registered in the County of Lunenburg."
The second volume, "Register of Free Negroes," 1850-1865, records the registration of free Black and multiracial people of Black descent in Lunenburg County and covers the years 1850 to 1865. The clerk recorded name, age, height, complexion, marks or scars, and in what court the person was emancipated or whether the person was born free. There is an index. It includes page numbers. In some instances, the clerk recorded information not required by law such as the name of the former enslaver, previous place of registration, or place of birth.
Lastly, includes a registration, 1865, of Drury Cooper, "a free mulatto."
This collection is arranged into
See also: Lunenburg County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1802-1865
Records related to free and enslaved people of Lunenburg County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.
Additional Lunenburg 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."
Will Book No. 5 and List of Free Negroes and Mulattoes Registered in the County of Lunenburg, 1800-1850 is located at the Lunenburg County Courthouse.