Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816

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:

Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816, 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:

Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816. Local government records collection, Amelia County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
1 item
Creator:
Amelia County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816. Local government records collection, Amelia County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816, consist of one petition submitted on behalf of 24 people. Petitions to remain are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The petitions often include the formerly enslaved individual's name, their method of emancipation, name of their former enslaver, and whether the application/petition was successful or not. Petitions may also include affidavits signed mainly by white residents or witness statements again provided by white residents. Additional names of enslaved or free Black and multiracial individuals can be found in these records.

These records include a petition to remain, 1816, filed by Tinsley, Adam, Samuel, Thomas, Old Samuel, Joice and her eight children, Henry, Ben, Woodson, Richard, Nancy, Martha, Jeremy, Haskins, Polly, Armistead, Jack, and Tom, "people of colour" emancipated by the will of Ann Hughes. Their request to remain in Amelia County was denied by the Court.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type: Sometimes referred to as "Applications to Remain," these records are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The Virginia General Assembly passed a law stating that all formerly enslaved people freed after 1 May 1806 who remained in Virginia more than twelve months could be put on trial by the state. Individuals who wished to remain in the commonwealth were to petition the state legislature. In 1816, a new Act of Assembly gave the local courts power to grant permission to remain. The documents in these cases will include: the name(s) of the petitioner(s), the circumstances of free status, and a request to remain in the county. Individuals needed to prove that they had in fact been emancipated. Therefore, application packets might also include supporting documents such as the formerly enslaved person's register, a copy of a will or deed of emancipation, or witness statements known as affidavits.

Locality History: Amelia County was named for Amelia Sophia Eleanora, daughter of King George II. It was formed from Prince George and Brunswick Counties by an act passed in 1734 to take effect on 25 March 1735. The county court first met on 9 May 1735. The county seat is Amelia.

Acquisition information:
These records were transferred to the Library of Virginia from Amelia County (Va.) in 2003 under accession number 40724.
Processing information:

Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth were originally described as part of the Amelia County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1801-1866, but were removed to the present Amelia County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816, record to enhance discoverability in December 2024.

These records are believed to have been removed from Amelia County (Va.) Judgments, among other Amelia County records, by C. Freed circa 2005.

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

Encoded by C. Collins: December 2024.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged

  • Series I: Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1816, arranged chronologically.

Arranged chronologically

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.