Register of Free Negroes for Northampton Co, Va, 1793-1861

Compiled and Indexed by Frances Bibbins Latimer
88 pp

Free Negroes were required to be registered and numbered in a book to kept by the town or county clerk. Each Free Negro was to be measured and weighed. Their height and weight along with age, name, color, distinguishing scars, free status and by whom, and in what court emancipated were recorded. Annually each Free Negro was to be delivered a copy of their freedom papers for twenty cents. A penalty was fixed for employing a black person who did not possess a certificate of freedom and the free Negro could be committed to jail. The Register of Free Negroes. 1853 to 1864 is housed in the Northampton County Clerk’s Office at Eastville, Virginia. Additional registrants were compiled from Northampton County Order Books