<Of course another reason (or rationale?) might have been fear that their 
slaves would suffer even more if they had their "freedom" -- and a lack of 
their former paternal oversight, care and discipline.>

The free African American Mayo family seems to have done very well without 
the "paternal oversight, care and discipline" of Joseph Mayo. Joseph tried 
to free his slaves by his 1780 will, but it was not until 1789 that the 
administrator of his estate managed to procure an act of Assembly which was 
carried out by the High Court of Chancery in 1789.

Several members of the family settled in Mecklenburg County. Fortune Mayo 
owned 3 cows, 2 calves, 5 sheep, a mare & colt, 14 hoes, 4 axes, a set of 
cooper's and carpenter's tools, 25 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of seed 
cotton and many household items by 1795 when she died.
Susanna Mayo bought 50 acres in Mecklenburg County in December 1797 from 
John Chavis Walden, an African American who had been free since colonial 
times. She was head of a Mecklenburg County household of 13 "free colored" 
in 1820. There were 16 members of the family who headed households in the 
1810 Virginia census. Fortune Mayo's children and other members of the Mayo 
family married into African American families that had been free since 
colonial times in both Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and Warren County, 
North Carolina.
Paul 

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