Ch. 5.2. Primary Source: The Virginia Manumission Act, 1782
This law allowed the emancipation of slaves by an owner either at death through a will or while an owner was alive via a deed of manumission. Many slaves were freed by their owners as a result of this law, including those that George Washington freed in his will. But the total freed by this means during the time that this law was in effect (1782-1806), about 20,000, was a small share of Virginia’s slave population, which numbered almost 300,000 in 1790, and 400,000 in 1810.
I. WHEREAS application hath been made to this present general assembly, that those persons who are disposed to emancipate their slaves may be empowered so to do, and the same hath been judged expedient under certain restrictions: Be it therefore enacted:
That it shall hereafter be lawful for any person, by his or her last will and testament, or by any other instrument in writing, under his or her hand and seal, attested and proved in the county court by two witnesses, or acknowledged by the party in the court of the county where he or she resides to emancipate and set free, his or her slaves, or any of them…
II. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That all slaves so set free, not being in the judgment of the court, of sound mind and body, or being above the age of forty-five years, or being males under the age of twenty-one, or females under the age of eighteen years, shall respectively be supported and maintained by the person so liberating them, or by his or her estate…
Provided also, That every person by written instrument in his life time, or if by last will and testament, the executors of every person freeing any slave, shall cause to be delivered to him or her, a copy of the instrument of emancipation, attested by the clerk of the court of the county… It shall be lawful for any justice of the peace to commit to the gaol of his county, any emancipated slave traveling out of the county of his or her residence without a copy of the instrument of his or her emancipation…
III. And be it further enacted, That in case any slave so liberated shall neglect in any year to pay all taxes and levies imposed or to be imposed by law, the court of the county shall order the sheriff to hire out him or her for so long time as will raise the said taxes and levies…
Sources: the Encyclopedia Virginia, under An act to authorize the manumission of slaves (1782); and, with many related documents, the Virginia Center for Digital History’s site on the “Geography of Slavery in Virginia,” under Official Records – Virginia Laws 1751-1800 (and then scroll down to this law).