The manumission statute of 1806 also provided that the former owner was
responsible until the slave left the state, required within one year. It
may be that the practice "to give their time" was a device to free the
slave, but not by deed of manumission so the slave never came under the eye
of the local government. This database seems to indicate that manumission
or "giving time" was quite common, but perhaps not significant in the sense
of percentage of slaves held.


Richard E. Dixon
Editor, Jefferson Notes 
Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
703-691-0770
fax 703-691-0978
fax 703-691-0978


> [Original Message]
> From: Jon Kukla <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 3/6/2007 9:52:33 AM
> Subject: [VA-HIST] Granting Time - another example
>
> 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
>
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