Welcome to the Virginia Manumission Database! The largest repository of Virginia manumission records online.

In 1782 an act of the Virginia General Assembly enabled the voluntary manumission (freeing) of thousands of slaves in the eight decades prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The motivation of each slave holder to free their slaves varied from individual to individual and many of the "freedom documents" give some indication as to their thoughts, beliefs and intentions. Though it is an unfortunate historical reality that enslaved individuals were treated as chattel property, this led to a documentation process in the court system that preserved these documents for future study.

Virginians of all backgrounds, including Quakers, free people of color, ordinary citizens, men and women, and even Founding Fathers, manumitted slaves. Through this process, men, women and children of all ages obtained freedom. The typical freedom document shows an individual slave being liberated, while the largest recorded act of manumission was carried out by Robert Carter III, freeing more than 450 individuals through deed.

The word “manumit” means “to release (a person) from slavery, bondage, or servitude; to set free,” and “manumission” refers to the action of manumitting. The more commonly known term "emancipation" refers to the process of freeing slaves through government action whereas manumission takes place when masters free their slaves voluntarily. In the Colonial and pre-Civil War period the two terms were used interchangeably, even appearing in the same document.