I do not believe this 1806 statute was rigidly enforced by most counties. I
often see the same freed slaves in the tax lists year after year, at least until
1813--the main year of my interest since free African American women were
also listed that year in many counties (by error).
In Butler's study of Goochland County that Henry referred to earlier, he says
the same white planters who endorsed the 1806 removal law signed petitions
to the legislature asking that individuals be allowed to stay. Butler refers to
John Russell's statement that the fear of the black community in Virginia was
not in the individual per se but rather white fears of unchecked growth in the
population as a consequence of natural increase.
In the 1813 tax list for Accomack County there are about 200 freed slaves
over the age of sixteen freed at least a year earlier.
Paul
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