Rita,

Your unnamed gentleman sounds most eccentric. Did he free all of his slaves, or just some of them? I assume the society women have names, as does the gentleman who wrote the will. It would help to know who you are talking about. Was it normal to free slaves in a will. No. But define "normal." It may not have been normal, but it was legal. I believe by this time the black code required emancipated slaves to leave the state within one year, or be resold back into slavery. This, however, was rarely enforced, but he did recognize it was a possibility and he made a provision for that.

This kind of will is the sort of things chancery suits are born of. Have you checked to see if there was a chancery suit regarding this will?

Craig Kilby

On Sep 3, 2014, at 5:44 PM, Rita Goldberg wrote:

> This is a request for help understanding two aspects of a will that was filed in Richmond in 1818.
> 
> 1. The gentleman in question frees several slaves and allows them to stay in the homes where they were living until these homes are sold as part of his estate. He also provides for a yearly amount ranging from $40-$150 to be paid to each of these individuals. In addition, he provides assistance if, because of the law, these freed slaves were not allowed to live in Virginia. My question is: Was it normal at the time for slave owners to free some or all of their slaves when they died? Are the provisions in the will normal or do they seem especially generous?
> 
> 2. The gentleman leaves amounts ranging from $2000 to $8000 to a series of women, most of them married but some not. Since several of these woman were well known in Richmond society, it's hard to imagine that they had all been lovers of the gentleman and that he would speak of them so openly in his will. Does anything you know about Richmond society of the time provide a clue as to the significance of these generous clauses?
> 
> I'd be very appreciative of any ideas that could help explain these two points in the 1818 will.
> 
> Rita Goldberg
> 
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