IN PROGRESS:Identified Free People in Want of Register, are digitized and available through
There are no restrictions.
Campbell County (Va.) Criminal Records, 1790-1945. Local government records collection, Campbell County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.
These records came to the Library of Virginia in two transfers of court papers from Campbell County in 2004 and under the accession number 41133, and in 2005 under the accession number 41665.
Encoded by G. Crawford, 2018; Updated by M. Mason, April 2026
Free People in Want of Registration
Consists of lists of free Black and multiracial people confined to jail because they were without a free registration document or certificate proving their free status. In some localities, city sergeants or county sheriffs created reports for the court of individuals confined to jail. These documents serve as a certification record of who was in jail. Prisoners were required to pay the jail fees accrued during their time in jail. If they could not pay, they were hired out to cover the cost of their expenses. If this was the case, the document may indicate if they were hired out along with a totaling of expenses. For further research, search the minute books or court order books for the locality of interest.
Commonwealth Causes
Commonwealth causes are criminal court cases filed by the state government that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts handed down by juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code.
The commonwealth causes reveal an inconsistency in forms of conviction and punishment for white versus Black and multiracial individuals. Throughout the early nineteenth century, Virginia legislators revised the laws in ways that reduced the legal status of free Black and Multiracial people to that of enslaved, thereby creating a legal system based on race. White Virginians and legislators feared insurrection and passed laws restricting the number of Black and Multiracial people allowed to gather in groups. Enslavers could be fined for permitting their enslaved people to hire themselves out for work and enslaved people were jailed on these occasions. While public whipping originated as a form of punishment for all those convicted, in Virginia, it was retained for those who were Black, free or enslaved, and officially outlawed as a punishment for white criminals in 1848. Often, Black individuals served much longer penitentiary sentences while the cases of white men, who had committed the same or similar crimes, were dismissed.
Campbell county (Va.) Commonwealth Causes, 1790-1945, consist of records concerning Free people in want of Registration, 1859; Commonwealth Causes, 1790-1934; and Criminal Indexes and Dockets, 1896-1945
Free people in want of Registration Records, 1859, are comprised of two lists that record the names of around 38 "free negroes" arrested for not having copies of their free registration. The lists include the following surnames: Appy, Banister, Brogden, Davis, Green, Harriss, Humbles (or Umbles), Jackson, McCoy, Scott, Stewart, Stuart, and Valentine. The lists include notations about the action of the court.
Commonwealth Causes, 1790-1934, are criminal court cases and consist primarily of warrants, summons, and indictments handed down by grand juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code. These offenses ranged in severity from assault and battery to larceny to murder.
Criminal Indexes, and Dockets, 1896-1945, consists of volumes of dockets and indexes concerning criminal cases.
This collection is arranged
See also:
Records related to free and enslaved people of Campbell County (Va.) and other localities are available through the
Additional Campbell County Court Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult