How exciting! I cannot wait!
On May 4, 2011 4:07 PM, "Brooks, Vincent (LVA)" <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Library of Virginia Receives $155,071 NEH Grant to Scan Petersburg
Chancery Records
>
> Contact:  Janice M. Hathcock
> For Immediate Release
>
>
> The Library of Virginia has received a grant of $155,071 from the National
Endowment for the Humanities to support the scanning of the City of
Petersburg chancery records, a significant collection for researchers
interested in the African American experience, women's history, and southern
labor and business history in the antebellum and post-Civil War periods. The
Library of Virginia is one of only 33 institutions to receive a grant in the
Humanities Collections and Reference Resources category and one of only two
state archives awarded an NEH grant.
>
> The Petersburg chancery causes are comprised of case files from the City
of Petersburg Court of Chancery, 1803 to 1912, and consist of 150 cubic feet
and include bills of complaint, affidavits, wills, business records,
correspondence, and photographs. Prior to 1860 Petersburg had the largest
population of freedmen in the Mid-Atlantic states. The records offer social,
demographic, and economic details that affected state, regional, and
national politics; legal decisions; and institutions. The evolution of
Petersburg's economy from one based on tobacco to one centered on milling
and manufacturing can be explored through the chancery records. The
importance of Petersburg as a prosperous and diverse city-the state's
largest market town and center of economic activity-is seen in the chancery
causes. As a commercial and industrial center as well as a transportation
hub Petersburg attracted an unusually large number of free African
Americans. By 1860 Petersburg had a population of 18,000 including more than
3,000 free African Americans, half of whom were women. The suits document
this aspect of Petersburg's robust and diverse population as free African
Americans, women, laborers, and artisans used the courts to recover debts,
settle estates, divorce spouses, assert land ownership, or dissolve
partnerships.
>
> A chancery cause is one that could not be decided readily by existing
written laws. Decisions were made by a justice or judge, not a jury, and on
the basis of fairness, or equity. These justices administered most facets of
local government and were the face of government for most people during this
period. As justices made decisions based on equity, they expressed social
mores and values that governed everyday life in communities. They were
appointed, not elected, until 1852, and most were not trained lawyers. Since
chancery cases dealt with issues of equity rather than law, they often
contain lengthy depositions, similar to oral histories, and can also hold
other valuable materials in the form of exhibits submitted to the court. It
is not uncommon to find land plats, correspondence, wills, publications,
photographs, architectural drawings, and the like as exhibits. As such,
these records are vital to genealogists and historians.
>
> This project will provide free online access to all pre-1913 Petersburg
chancery causes. The Chancery Records Index is available through the
Library's Virginia Memory Web portal (www.virginiamemory.com). Currently,
records from 49 localities can be searched through the index. The scanning
project will begin in May 2011 and be complete on April 30, 2012.
> # # #
>
> About the Library of Virginia
> The Library of Virginia (www.lva.virginia.gov), located in historic
downtown Richmond, holds the world's most extensive collection of material
about the Old Dominion and has been a steward of the commonwealth's
documentary and printed heritage since 1823. The story of Virginia and
Virginians has been told in many ways since 1607. At the Library of Virginia
it is told through more than 113 million manuscripts and more than 1.9
million books, serials, bound periodicals, microfilm reels, newspapers, and
state and federal documents, each an individual tile in the vast and
colorful mosaic of Virginia's experience.
>
> About the Circuit Court Records Preservation Program: Since 1990 the
Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (
www.lva.virginia.gov/agencies/CCRP/) has been charged with preserving and
providing access to the historical records of Virginia's 120 circuit courts.
The CCRP is funded by a portion of all clerks' recordation fees. Collected
funds are administered by the Library, and the CCRP program works closely
with the circuit court clerks to award grants to assist clerks in addressing
the records preservation needs in their offices. Since its inception, the
program has made nearly 1,000 preservation grants in excess of $14 million
to clerks throughout the commonwealth. The CCRP also provides resources
needed to process and house the circuit court records that are transferred
to the State Archives for safekeeping and increased access, as well as to
track, duplicate, and maintain circuit court microfilm stored at the Library
of Virginia.
>
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