Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts

Library, Special Collections
415 North Boundary Street
Williamsburg, VA 23187
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Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776

52. ELIZA JAQUELIN AMBLER PAPERS

25 items 1780-1826
Personal and family letters of this Yorktown resident. Of note is her comment about a white servant's attitude toward black slaves.
(Acc. MS 54.6)

53. ROBERT ANDERSON PAPERS

4,763 items, 1787-1858
Family, business, and personal correspondence and accounts of this merchant, insurance agent, and politician of Williamsburg and Yorktown. Among the business papers are arrest warrants for slaves. There is considerable correspondence concerning slavery, such as a January 11, 1846, letter from Anthony Baber to Robert Anderson discussing an incident in which the slave Salley was badly burned.
(Acc. Ms 72.2)

54. EDMUND BAGGE ACCOUNT BOOK

1 item, 1726-33
Business record of this Essex County man. In the journal are accounts for the delivery of slave children from the estate of John Bagge.
(Acc. MS 41.9)

55. WILLIAM BLATHWAYT PAPERS

2,568 items, 1674-1715
Official papers of this British colonial administrator. One of the topics covered in his correspondence is the question of slavery in the Leeward Islands. Letters of July 10, 1696, and July 10, 1697, discuss the importation of slaves into Virginia and Maryland.
(Acc. MS 9)

56. NATHANIEL BURWELL PAPERS

9 items, 1750-1814
Business papers and ledger of this Williamsburg planter who lived at Carter's Grove. The ledger for 1773-1805 has entries on the buying and selling of slaves.
(Acc. 81.12)

57. ROBERT CARTER LETTERBOOKS

3 items, 1761-69
Business volumes of this planter from Westmoreland County. Among the entries concerning slavery is one mentioning that a slave had been banished for cruelty to one of the Carter children.

58. ROBERT WORMELEY CARTER DIARY

1 item, 1776
Personal observances of this planter from Sabine Hall, Richmond County, pertaining to his personal and business affairs, including agreements with overseers. A few entries mention slavery, such as one on September 27 concerning payment for slave shoes.

59. RICHARD CORBIN PAPERS

350 items, 1746-1818
Letters and account of Richard Corbin, receiver general of Virginia. Included is a 1774-75 diary of John Harrower, who before he became an overseer for the Corbin family was an indentured servant from Scotland who taught the children of William Dangerfield of Fredericksburg. Harrower's diary has been published in the American Historical Review 6 (1900): 65-107. On April 20, 1775, he noted that a slave of Corbin's who turned a horse loose had been given "39 laches with Hickry switches." In the loose papers are many lists of slaves at various places in the Tidewater area.
(Acc. DMS 71.5)

60. DABNEY FAMILY LEDGER

1 item, 1755-78
Plantation ledger of Charles and William Dabney of Aldingham, Hanover County. The accounts include entries on slavery, such as payments on December 6, 1763, to "John Glen for cureing the negroe boy Wills head" and on November 1, 1764, to John Strong for apprehending Will as a runaway.
(Acc. A79.1)

61. CHARLES DEANE LETTER

1 item, October 17, 1879
Letter of Charles Deane of Massachusetts to Samuel Eliot of Massachusetts referring to slavery in Virginia.
(Acc. MS00)

62. WILLIAM GOOCH DOCUMENTS

2 items, 1733 and 1744
A July 4, 1733, commission to Robert Bolling concerning a slave of Daniel Elbank of Prince Edward County who was to remain in jail on suspicion of felony and an August 25, 1744, commission to George Newton for the trial of a female slave, Nan, for felony.
(Acc. MS00)

63. MISCELLANEOUS MANUSCRIPTS

ca.45 items, 1618-1861
Included is a March 26, 1808, certificate of Henry Robinson for a runaway slave.

64. MANN PAGE, JR., PAPERS

509 items, 1765-1869
Business, legal, and personal papers of this Gloucester County businessman. There are scattered references to slavery, such as an August 9, 1783, deed from Richard Coleman to John Page for a slave named Tom and an October 19, 1788, letter from John Page to Mann Page mentioning illness among the slaves.
(Acc. MS 42)

65. SLAVE PASS

1 item, October 29-30, 1771
Safe-conduct pass for two slaves of James Mercer to travel from Fredericksburg to Williamsburg.
(Acc. MS A75.1)

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