Assignment: Free Blacks constituted a small percentage of the population of Central Virginia, although slaves made up more than half of the total. Laws and customs circumscribed the lives of free Blacks; state law in fact mandated that any emancipated slave whose parents were not born free before May 1, 1806, must leave the Commonwealth. All freed Blacks allowed to remain had to apply for and keep free papers which was their only legal claim to their status. One could imagine that the war would further limit their lives as the tension created by the crumbling of southern racial institutions put their status in an unfavorable light in the minds of their white neighbors. On the other hand, the same phenomenon might create opportunities for a more autonomous existence and for a greater African American communal identity.

Based on the evidence in the following documents, how had the war affected free African Americans in Central Virginia by 1864?

A. Notice placed in the Lynchburg Virginian by a free African-American woman that she had lost her free papers and intended to apply for new ones. Lynchburg Virginian, March 28, 1864.

B. Notice placed in Lynchburg Virginian by Susan Taylor, "Free Woman of Color," stating that her children had destroyed her free papers and that she intended to apply for new papers. Lynchburg Virginian, April, 13, 1864.

C. Will of Elizabeth Coles, made in August 1864, in which she bequeathed to Catherine Alexander, a free African-American woman, $50 for each year of service she rendered since 1860, or $25 for each year if she left Coles' service before her death.

D. Letter from C. C. Baldwin to James Penn, a free African-American man, informing him of his imminent arrest for remaining in Virginia contrary to law. Baldwin offers to pay cash for Penn's property as long as Penn leaves without delay.

E. Two notations of criminal cases from the Albemarle County Minute Books,1862-1865.


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