This is the query I posted to VA-HIST:

Can the list aid me in understanding the intricacies of
Virginia race laws in the 1850s?  The following entries
(unearthed by researcher Sam Towler) appear in the
Albemarle County Minute Book 1856-1859:

6 Oct 1857 (pg 190): Application of . . . Susan Catharine
Foster for a certification that [she is ] of mixed blood.

same date (Pg 203):  ...upon evidence of Thomas J.
Randolph that Susan Catharine Foster and Clayton Randolph
Foster, children of Ann Foster, are not negroes in the
meaning of the act of assembly.

The involvement of Thomas Jefferson Randolph is, of
course, intriguing, as is the fact that Clayton?s middle
name is Randolph.

In connection  with this, today?s Charlottesville Daily
Progress carries an article about the excavation of Foster
family graves near UVA.

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