Cumberland County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures 1759-1856

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

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.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Cumberland County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1759-1856. Local government records collection, Cumberland County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Creator:
Cumberland County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Cumberland County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1759-1856. Local government records collection, Cumberland County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Cumberland County (Va.) Apprenticeship Indentures, 1759-1856, 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 include 5 folders of apprenticeship indentures. Of these indentures, 38 are related to Black and Multiracial individuals. They were bound out “to be taught the Art trade or Mistery” of farming, blacksmithing, and wheelwrighting, among other occupations. Their white counterparts were bound out to learn similar trades. In most instances, Black and white female apprentices learned trades related to “female business,” “house business,” or housekeeping, like sewing, cording, spinning, and weaving.

Biographical / historical:

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: Cumberland County was named for William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, third son of King George II. It was formed from Goochland County in 1749. The county seat is Cumberland.

Acquisition information:
These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Cumberland County (Va.) as part of an undated accession.
Processing information:

Indentures related to Black and Multiracial individuals have been 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. Other indentures have been processed and indexed by LVA staff.

Encoded by G. Crawford: April 2018; updated by C. Collins: April 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged

  • Series I: Apprenticeship Indentures, 1759-1856, arranged chronologically.

Arranged chronologically

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.225 cu. ft. (1 box)