“God of One Blood”: Deeds of Manumission in The Counties of Accomack, Northampton, Norfolk, and Elizabeth City, Virginia (1785-1824)

Abstract

When considering the analytical framework of chattel slavery in the history of this nation, its history has been written in laws, constitutional amendments, cases, and a variety of legal mechanisms and precedents that simply do not tell the entire narrative of that “peculiar institution.”2 In our examination of American chattel slavery, it is as if we were crafting a quilt commencing with those legal pronouncements as composing the outside frame of that particular construct. But it is only when we consider the individual narratives of those persons for whom slavery was a lived experience that we can see that the institution was composed of a multitude of smaller pieces and patches, that when arranged in a patchwork manner, reveal remarkable narratives of the lives of many brave men, women, and children who lived their lives on both sides of the line, and regardless of which side of the side of the divide, whether enslaved or enslaver.