This summer, we worked with Professor Serena Zabin from the History department on a new project organizing and analyzing a database of petitions from eighteenth and nineteenth-century Virginia. The opportunity was unexpected since Serena offered us the opportunity to work for her during office hours. However, we were both so excited to be able to explore American history outside of the classroom. The work consisted of ten weeks of research, primarily sifting through the Virginia Untold database to find stories we could pursue further. The first three weeks involved intensive reading of manuscript petitions and creating a system of organization. This was the most challenging part of the project for us both, as it sometimes felt like we were groping in the dark for an understanding of these manuscripts. Finally, we found threads we could hold onto and spin them into a deeper project. From there, our paths diverged.
Riley: I found two petitions submitted to the local assembly in Petersburg, Virginia, on the same day. The first came from a man named Major Elbeck, and the other from Uriah Tynes. Both lived, presumably, in a smaller community of free black people known as Pocahontas. The content of both petitions was driven by an 1806 law that required newly freed slaves to leave the state of Virginia within one year. After its passage, there was a large increase in the number of petitions advocating for the right to remain. The petitions of both Elbeck and Tynes contained such requests. The signatories of community members were almost identical, and after extensive family tree research through various other databases, I discovered that many of these signatories were white. Much secondary source research also provided help with contextualizing and understanding the conditions of free black community members in and around Petersburg.
Ambar: After I found and read the complete freedom suit of Hannah Fender, I was drawn to her story and decided to focus on the history of the Findley family and how they sued their enslavers for their freedom. Their story begins with the kidnapping of Chance and James, Choctaw children who were kidnapped by Henry Clay and brought to Virginia as slaves. I first wanted to start immediately making a family tree of the Findleys, but no matter how much I kept re-reading Hannah’s petition, the events made no sense to me. So, I started to write a timeline of her case, trying to decipher the jumbled mess of documents spanning different years, counties, and people. After having a clear understanding of her case, I started working on a Findley family tree, combing over 200 pages of documents for any mention and reference of family members. This was the most time-consuming part of the process, but it was worth it as I completed the tree with a document for each family member detailing the sources of my information.
Throughout this process, we learned that the political landscape of Early America was much more nuanced than we believed was possible within communities of the Upper South. By sharing these stories, we give a voice to those who used differing avenues of political access to advocate for themselves and carve out their freedom, even against the constraints of their legal system.