Michael Nicholls's searchable data base (cited in recent posts) can also
shed light on a question posed earlier about the phrase 'given their time'
(and variants) as an informal form of manumission.
 Picking a county at random this morning, I used the Acrobat 'search'
function to seek the word 'time.' Of seven hits under Chesterfield wills,
several are directly relevant. In the example below from the Nicholls
database I have retyped HIS TIME in capital letters so it stands out.

Chesterfield County Will Book 8 1813-1818 LVA Reel # 29 p. 510

Will of Louis Ducos Lahaille – 1816 – directing his executor to "take money
owed to him from Louis Truehart’s . . . and buy a boy named William, about
2 yrs old, . . . and which boy I consider and believe to be my child" and
directing the executor further to "keep him until he is 21 and bring him
up to gardening as a trade and profession" and then William is "to have
and enjoy from 21 on the full and absolute benefit of HIS TIME and labour
and in the same manner as free men are entitled to the same, but if
the said William shall think proper to leave VA or iF at his age of 21 the
laws of VA shall permit the emancipation of slaves then and in either
event it is my will and desire that the said Wm shall be absolutely and
forever free."

Pretty clearly, further research in Va wills and deeds would yield more
examples and shed additional light on the practice of 'granting time' in
lieu of formal manumission.



Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463

Fax 434-376-2647

- M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
- Karen Gorham, Associate Curator
- Edith Poindexter, Curator

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html