It is important to remember that there were two kinds of taxes after
1783, on land and on people. The owners of land were taxed in the county
or city where the land was, which showed up on the land tax books; and
the people were taxed where they resided, which showed up on the
separate personal property tax books where they resided. Enslaved people
were also taxed, but because some enslaved people lived on land in a
different county than the owner lived, and some were hired out to people
who may have lived in other counties or cities, and some lease
agreements specified that the owner paid the tax and some that the
renter pay the tax, there was no uniformity about which personal
property tax list on which the enslaved property was listed.
 
Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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