Preliminary Research of Free Blacks in Loudoun County, Virginia 1850-1860: Identity, Settlement Patterns and Cultural Landscape 1850-1866, 2004

Access and use

Location of collection:
Thomas Balch Library
Thomas Balch Library
208 West Market Street
Leesburg, Virginia 20176
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Alexandra S. Gressitt
Phone: (703) 737-7195
Fax: (703) 737-7195

Summary

Creator:
Janine Duncan
Abstract:
This collection was an Independent Study Project carried out as part of the Historic Preservation Certificate Program at Northern Virginia Community College in Sterling, Virginia. This collection consists of a 36-page typescript.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection was an Independent Study Project carried out as part of the Historic Preservation Certificate Program at Northern Virginia Community College in Sterling, Virginia. The Program is an eight-course program designed, according to the program's website, "to meet the needs of those seeking to develop or refine research, analytical, and field skills in historic preservation, archaeology, and museum studies" and is offered at NOVA's Loudoun Campus.

This collection consists of a 36-page typescript explaining the scope, method, and sources for the project and discussing the findings of the research, including numerous tables of supporting data; a list of prosecutions against Free Blacks; tables of data for Loudoun County from the 1850 and 1860 censuses, copies of original census returns, a deed, and a Plantation Property Inventory, and an index of the names mentioned; a copy of the 1853 Yardley Taylor Loudoun County Survey Map and a copy of the 1863 U.S. Army Map of Loudoun County, with indices.

Biographical / historical:

Researcher Janine Duncan completed Preliminary Research of Free Blacks in Loudoun County, Virginia 1850-1860 as one of the requirements of the Historic Preservation Certificate Program at Northern Virginia Community College. The study draws on the 1850 and 1860 censuses and corresponding Slave Schedules for Loudoun County, the Loudoun County Registry of Free Negroes 1844-1861, Loudoun county Land Tax Records, and Loudoun County Deed Books to gather as much general information as possible about the 2-6% of the county's population during the 1850s who were free Blacks. The study summarizes the legal status of free Blacks at the state and local levels. Free Blacks were required to leave the state not later than one year after obtaining their freedom, yet were also required to register at the county level every three years. This "Catch-22" was partly mitigated by a lack of enforcement and, apparently, some amount of tolerance at the local level. The study also includes information on the family lives, occupations, and social and economic status of free Blacks, drawn from the data recorded in or deduced from the sources listed above, and also refers to public petitions made to the Virginia General Assembly in the 1830s and 1840s. The main text is supplemented by tables, lists, and maps containing the data used to support the study's conclusions.

Acquisition information:
Janine Duncan, GA.
Physical description:
6 folders