As a P.S., I should add that I have also seen the phrase "to give
[someone] his time" used in other American historical contexts to
indicate the action of a master in ending an apprentice's period of
servitude, or when a young person is released from the obligation to
work for an employer while conveying his wages to his father. I can't
say whether this usage was ever current in Virginia, however.
Clearly, though, the term had similar applications in various types of
servitude other than slavery; and I wonder if perhaps its use in the
context of slavery derived from those situations when a slave was
permitted to hire him- or herself out and keep the wages rather than
remitting them to his/her legal owner--a situation that would have been
more or less equivalent to informal emancipation.
--Jurretta Heckscher
On Feb 27, 2007, at 6:34 PM, Jurretta Heckscher wrote:
> Yes, I have come across the term "to give a slave his/her time," and
> it means, as you have surmised, an unofficial emancipation: the
> person was allowed to live as a free person, but legally they were not
> free--and thus subject to having their "freedom" revoked at any time
> by their legal owner or his/her heirs.
>
> The reasons for this practice were probably numerous. In Virginia,
> the law (of 1806, if memory serves?) stating that those who were
> officially freed either had to leave the state within a year, or have
> their residence in the state approved by a petition to the
> legislature, probably led some slaveholders to "give time" in this
> fashion rather than go to the trouble, and publicity, of turning to
> the legislature.
>
> I don't know, but can imagine, that it might therefore have been an
> especially useful mechanism among two grooups: those who had
> themselves been manumitted and were subsequently able to purchase
> enslaved family members, but who (even if they were literate and could
> craft a formal petition) might reasonably have supposed that their
> wishes would carry little weight with the legislature; and those--such
> as Martha Jefferson Randolph--whose social position was such that
> whatever informal arrangements they might make for their human chattel
> would likely have been treated with respect, discretion, and
> understanding by the white community, thus affording the slaves so
> treated some measure of local protection.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> --Jurretta Heckscher
>
> On Feb 27, 2007, at 5:53 PM, Heritage Society wrote:
>
>> Martha Jefferson Randolph, by an unsigned note, expressed a wish for
>> her children
>> "to give their time" to three slaves ("Betsy Hemmings, Sally and
>> Wormely").
>> Other references in the note make it clear that the slaves are not
>> being liberated. This note has been referred to as a "codicil," but
>> it is unsigned and unrecorded , and why it has been referred to as a
>> "codicil" is unclear. Has anyone run across this term "to give their
>> time"? The procedure for manumission was specific in the Virginia
>> statutes at this time , so this term suggests a euphemism for a
>> practice where slaves were permitted to go on their own , but were
>> not required to leave Virginia , since they were not legally freed
>> from slavery . Does this term appear anywhere else in the literature?
>> . Any comments would be appreciated and it may be off list if
>> preferred.
>>
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