Keith family papers, 1710–1865. 193 items. Mss1K2694a. Microfilm reels B19 and C599.
The papers of this Fauquier County family contain several references to slaves; one item concerns a carpenter, George, employed by the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs Company (section 22). An 1861 memorandum describes Isham Keith's dispute with an African American family concerning his fence rails being used as firewood (section 14). Another item in section 14 is a document of several pages in which Isham Keith records his opinions of free African Americans and their negative effect on slaves as a result of envy, which he believes leads to crime, especially theft. He outlines a plan for the state legislature to impose on the counties for removing all the free African Americans in the state by giving free African Americans a choice of enslavement or emigration to Africa. In the same section is a summary of Keith's losses during the 1862 Federal occupation of Fauquier County.

Keith family papers, 1830–1979. ca. 1,025 items. Mss1K2694cFA2. Microfilm reels C432–433 and C599–601.
Additional papers of the same Keith family as above; several items are notable. In the correspondence of Isham Keith (1801–1863) with his brother John Marshall Keith (1788–1841), living in Georgia, John acknowledges receipt of a bill of sale for slaves (mentioned by name) and will be sending a check (1836; box 1). Boxes 3, 4, and 5 contain the correspondence of Robert Taylor Scott with his wife, Fanny Scott (Carter) Scott. Three letters are of particular interest. Robert's letter to Fanny, dated 31 December 1856, describes preparations in homes in Prince William and Fauquier counties for an anticipated slave insurrection. An 1860 letter to Fanny (12 July) describes briefly an escape of slaves Shadrack and Dick; Shadrack could read, so they were making their way by the North Star and an almanac. They were captured within three miles of the Pennsylvania border. Another letter to Fanny (1 January 1861) describes Robert's activities as a hiring agent, indicating slaves he has difficulty hiring out, hiring a nurse for his own family, and collecting on hiring bonds.

Kennedy, William, papers, 1853–1870. 33 items. Mss1K3884a.
As a free African American residing in Henrico County before the Civil War, William Kennedy played an unusual role in the history of his community. He worked as a mechanic and carpenter; after the war he was active in the Mount Olive Baptist Church, the Sons of Jacob mutual aid society, and the Republican party.

Correspondence (section 1) includes a letter from Elizabeth Carr relating family news and plans for her marriage to Kennedy, a letter from James Jefferson regarding a call to serve a local church, and another from William Fanning Wickham, 1867, discussing elections for the state legislature and the character of the candidates sought. Accounts are in section 2 and include tax receipts for 1853 and 1863 (both printed forms altered to accommodate race), construction work done for Caroline County, and a petition for financial assistance for replacing tools stolen while working for the Republican party (1868). In section 3 are letters of recommendation concerning Kennedy's excellent character, his early enlistment in the Union army, and his skill as a mechanic.

Materials pertaining to the Mount Olive Baptist Church constitute section 4. They include a recommendation of transfer of membership for Miles Mosby and a petition for assistance in building a place of worship. Section 5 contains notes on civic organizations, in particular the Sons of Jacob mutual aid society. Section 6 includes a bank imprinted bond, 1860; military pass, 1862; some Republican tickets with William Kennedy listed as a delegate for Henrico County; and an 1869 certificate of the Grand State Council of the Union League of America, issued to Kennedy and Lewis Lindsey. Section 7 contains blank voter forms, 1869; documents of the United States First Military District, 1870; and a roster of freedmen, with information on ages (no date).

Kent, Joseph (1765–1843), papers, 1760–1805. 5 items. Mss2K4165b. Photocopies.
Resident of Wythe County. Two documents, an 1805 deed of trust of Jane Quirk of Montgomery County and an 1800 will of James McGavock of Wythe County, refer to slaves by name and identify owners. The deed records three names—Dick, Charlotte, and her child Tom.

Kent, Robert Meredith (1815–1901), list, 1858. 1 p. Mss2H2442a1.
List, dated 30 December 1858, of slaves belonging to the estate of Uriah Harris of Louisa County.

King, Clinton M. (1834–1862), papers, 1861–1862. 2 items. Mss2K5810b.
Materials concerning King’s service in the 32nd Regiment of Virginia Militia and the 52nd Virginia Infantry Regiment of the Confederate States Army include a letter written by King about March 1862 to his wife in which, in part, he discusses his concern over his wife’s ability to maintain their farm in his absence and his suggestion that she hire a slave to assist her.

King & Queen County, Sheriff, papers, 1766–1767, and 1818–1823. 7 items. Mss3K5892a.
Includes account books, 1819–1821, kept by Benjamin Pollard, deputy sheriff, concerning the assessment and collection of taxes on land, personal property, and slaves.

King & Queen County Historical Society, papers, 1822–1955. 67 v. Mss10: no. 244. Microfilm.
Among a large group of financial record books preserved by this local historical society is an account book, 1852–1858, of William Martin concerning mercantile operations and slaves in King & Queen County (item 63).

Kings County, N.Y., tax list, [1790?]. 1 p. Mss4K6113a1.
Records number of slaves owned by thirty-four residents of this New York county.

Kingston Parish, Mathews County, register, 1755–1775. 248 pp. Mss5:8BX5917K6195:1.
This register records births, baptisms, deaths, and burials of slaves in a section separate from white vital statistics. Some baptisms are noted as adult baptisms; births are recorded with name, date, and owner's name. Mothers' names are not recorded.

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de (1757–1834), letter, 1830. 3 pp. Mss2L1314a3. Microfilm reel C50.
This letter in French to Peter Stephen duPonceau has an English translation available in typescript. In his postscript Lafayette expresses his concern that an article in the Gazette de France reported on Richmonders' complaints that African Americans working in printing establishments are using the work as a way to obtain literacy and education. He is concerned how Frenchmen will perceive Richmond.

Lane, Jane Collins, papers, 1861–1865. 15 items. Mss2L2422b.
Collection consists of letters written to Jane Lane by members of her family serving in Confederate military units. Include letters from her husband, Edward V. Lane, of the 56th Virginia Infantry, in part providing financial advice, with the suggestion that she hire out their slave Emeline to raise money.

Lancaster family papers, 1784–1872. 166 items. Mss1L2215a.
Papers of a prominent family of Richmond bankers and investors. Section 2 contains the correspondence of Robert Alexander Lancaster (1829–1902), including an 1859 letter written to James Burr Ely from Richmond concerning a vaccination for slave children, presumably against smallpox.

Large, Maurice Robeson (1908–1992), scrapbook, 1952–1955. 82 pp. Mss5:7L3239:1.
Kept in Farmville by the chairman of the Prince Edward County school board from 1950 to 1954, this volume contains newspaper clippings concerning public school segregation and the case of Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward.

Larue family papers, 1846–1889. 41 items. Mss1L3295a.
This collection consists primarily of the papers of John Billups Larue (1792–1875) of Bloomfield, Clarke County, and Summit Point, Jefferson County (now W.Va.). In Larue’s correspondence, 1849–1861, is an exchange with his nephew James William Shirley concerning a request that he approve a marriage between Shirley’s slave Harrison and Larue’s slave Mary (section 1).

Bennie Layton and the Rhythm Kings Orchestra, account book, 1937–1939. 126 pp. Mss5:3L4553:1.
The book is blank except for pages 51–89, on which are recorded the names of organizations, places, times, and dates for whom the Rhythm Kings played. Julian's Ballroom in the Harlem Center, Richmond, was one of the locations frequented most often. Other places include Petersburg, Lawrenceville, Hanover, Charlottesville, Millers Tavern, Smithfield, Emporia, Peak, Winchester, Farmville, Ashland, and the Robert E. Lee, as well as a number of other Richmond locations.

Layton, William Brown (1888–1975), papers, 1907–1978. 59 items. Mss1L4554a.
William Brown Layton was a graduate of St. Paul Normal and Industrial School and went on to become a blacksmith instructor and then superintendent of the Virginia Manual Labor School for Colored Boys. Today this institution is the Hanover Learning Center.

Section 1 contains correspondence, much of it from former students writing to Layton about his influence and the school's influence on their lives. Other letters express thanks for gifts of the school farm's produce. One such letter, 1947, is from Governor William M. Tuck on receiving a gift of food especially favored by the governor. Others include a request from J. Baskett, 1944, about returning to Richmond to work. He has been laying brick in Roanoke but is not being paid the same as white men that are doing the same job. Thomas J. Edwards inquires about the job of managing the farm, which he has just heard is vacant. Private Samuel Curtis's letter, 1943, from Camp Lee tells about being in the band at the Manual Labor School and then in the army. An unidentified student writes from Massachusetts as he embarks on his education. C. Sutton, 1946, writes from the Norfolk jail asking Layton to intervene on his behalf to prevent his assignment to the state penitentiary. In January 1943, William Stauffer, the commissioner of the public welfare, inquires about the farm's ability to help with the current emergency in food production.

In a speech entitled "Straightening Bent Saplings" (section 2), the speaker directs his remarks to the correction of the attitude of boys who lean toward criminal behavior. In section 3 is a copy of the 1924–1926 budget that provides financial information about each department's resources: the farm, the trades, the free school, and the clinic. In the same section are two 1948 copies of the Hanover Special, a newsletter published by the Y Teen Club of the Hanover Industrial School. A fact sheet provides a brief summary of the school's history, purpose, and facilities. A visitor list for 16 March 1975 shows a number of people interested in the institution's history—friends and relatives of the Laytons, former students and staff, and others affiliated with it in various ways.

Section 4 contains a letter of Marguerite C. Layton describing how her mother-in-law, Mary Amanda (Sully) Layton, contributed to the positive atmosphere at the Hanover School. In section 5 are genealogical notes about the Quivers family, comments about interracial marriages, and previously published information about slave employment at the Tredegar Iron Works.

LeConte, T., letter, 1868. 4 pp. Mss2L4968a1.
Written 16 January 1868 from Columbia, S.C., to Emily Virginia Mason concerning a second edition of Mason's book, The Southern Poems of the War (Baltimore, 1867), to be produced soon. LeConte worries about the poor prospects of South Carolina's cotton future, idleness and lack of employment among African Americans, and a number of other postwar economic concerns.

Lee, Fitzhugh (1835–1905), letter, [1885]. 1 p. Mss2L5113a4. Photocopy.
Written from Evergreen in Fairfax County on 12 December 1885 to Magnus Lewis Robinson of Staunton, an African American journalist and newspaper editor, this letter concerns equal rights for African Americans. The original letter was in private hands in 1951.

Lee, George Bolling (1872–1948), papers, 18411868. 78 items. Mss1L5114c. Microfilm reels C27 and C278.
Primarily consists of letters written by Robert E. Lee of Arlington, Alexandria County (now Arlington County), while serving in the U.S. Army in New York, Texas, and during the Mexican War, while commanding the Confederate States Army of Northern Virginia, and while president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University).

An 1844 letter of Lee (item c6), written to his mother-in-law, Mary (Fitzhugh) Custis, from Fort Hamilton, N.Y., mentions copies of newspapers he is sending her concerning resolutions passed by the New York Anti-Slavery Society, with particular notice of the issue of religion and slavery. The remaining letters are written to Lee's son William Henry Fitzhugh Lee. An 1858 letter (item c26) concerns resistance by some slaves to Lee's authority and their punishment. Two 1860 letters from San Antonio, Tex. (items c36 and c38), make brief mention of the slave community at Arlington and at the White House in New Kent County and concern recordkeeping of slave births and deaths, hiring versus the purchase of a personal slave for R. E. Lee, the accidental loss of fingers by a slave working with agricultural machinery, the treatment of elderly slaves, and the instruction of younger men in various tasks. An 1862 letter written from Savannah, Ga. (item c46), concerns the emancipation of slaves belonging to the estate of George W. P. Custis of Arlington.

Lee, Henry (1787–1837), letter, 1827. 5 pp. Mss2L5124a4.
Letter, 17 July 1827, written near Nashville, Tenn., to Richard T. Brown of Westmoreland Court House, concerning a plan to send slaves to work at the Soldier's Rest plantation in Rapides Parish, La., owned by Walter Hampden Overton. Includes instructions for Richard Omohundro, who was to conduct the slaves to Louisiana. Annexed: letter, 27 June 1827, of Overton to Lee outlining the plan.

Lee, Mary Custis, papers, 1694–1917. 6,495 items. Mss1L5144a.
This collection consists of papers compiled by Mary Custis Lee (1835–1918), who was the eldest daughter of General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) and Mary Anna Randolph (Custis) Lee (1807–1873) of Arlington House in what is now the City of Arlington.

Letters, 180[?]–1852, of Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) Custis (1788–1853), an early antislavery advocate and active member of the American Colonization Society, include correspondence with Episcopal bishop William Meade (sections 9, 10, and 11) and with Society secretary Ralph Randolph Gurley (sections 10 and 11). Letters of her daughter, Mary Anna Randolph (Custis) Lee, include correspondence, 1867, with William C. Burke, a former Custis family slave, concerning family life and farming in Liberia (section 25) and correspondence, 1872–1873, with Selina Gray, a former servant at Arlington, concerning items taken during the Civil War from the house, bearing news of other former servants and her own family, and offering a description of Arlington in 1872, including the settlement of freedmen and women on the grounds (section 26).

Letters, 1890–1907, of Mary Custis Lee include correspondence, 1902, concerning her brush with police for taking a seat in the African American section of a segregated streetcar in Alexandria [part of a full folder on this incident] (section 37). Among miscellaneous items is a letter, 1867, written by William C. Burke, a former slave at Arlington now in Clay Ashland, [Liberia], to Ralph Randolph Gurley discussing his health, family life, lack of missionary aid during the American Civil War, a description of a trip to Cape Palmas, Liberia, and questions about Arlington (section 63).

Lee, Newton M., list, ca. 1865. 1 p. Mss2L5144a1.
Names slaves belonging to Andrew E. Ellett of Richmond.

Lee, Robert Edward (1807–1870), letters, 1858. 8 items. Mss2W7336c.
Lee writes to William Overton Winston to make arrangements for hiring out three men and three women. The women, ages thirty-five, twenty-two, and seventeen, are accustomed to housework; he recommends them for washing and ironing but not for honesty. The men can be housed at the jail if Winston prefers.

Lee, Robert Edward (1843–1914), letter, 1908. 1 p. Mss2L5151a1.
Letter, 14 December 1908, written from Ravensworth, Fairfax County, to Thomas Nelson Page concerning the emancipation of slaves belonging to the estate of George Washington Parke Custis and to Robert E. Lee (1807–1870).

Lee family papers, 1638–1867. 684 items. Mss1L51f. Microfilm reels C22–23 and C225–229.
Many of the papers of this prominent Virginia family concern property in James City County, where much of the land belonging to this branch of the family was located. Family members significant to this collection are William Lee (1739–1795), who spent a considerable amount of time in England and invested in transatlantic ventures, and his brother, Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794), a planter and delegate to the Continental Congress.

In section 76 is a 1718 letter of Governor Alexander Spotswood to Charles Eden concerning the capture of a pirate's ship. It had taken an English ship's cargo of slaves from Guinea, and the slaves were thought to be in Eden's vicinity. A copy of some 1715 resolutions of the House of Burgesses includes a resolution concerning duties and tax on slaves.

Sections 81, 82, and 86 contain copies of acts and bills of the Virginia General Assembly. A colonial bill for raising money for the militia and an additional tax on slaves is in section 81; an act concerning runaway slaves (section 82) deals in particular with captured slaves whose owners cannot be determined, fees to be paid by owners, and confinement of slaves in the public jail. Section 86 contains an amendment, ca. 1705, to the fugitive slave act mentioned above. It provides exemption from taxes and free ferriage for constables who must transport slaves.

Several slave lists, 1769, for James City County plantations are in section 97. Estate papers for Philip Ludwell (1716–1767) dominate; a 1775 appraisal is included. The lists are divided by general categories—men, women, boys, girls—for the plantations Hot Water, Scotland, Claverton, Pinewood Meadow, Mill Quarter, Archershope, Rich Neck, New Quarter, and Green Spring. The lists are by name only, but the 1775 appraisal contains ages for the determination of tithes.

William Lee's letterbooks, 1769–1793, appear in sections 113–122. The books are well indexed and contain numerous brief passages of African American content. Among them are an admonition to Mr. Ellis to treat slaves as human beings, keep them well fed and clothed, and restrict pregnant women from hard work (June 1778, section 115); arrangements for sale of the slave Juba in Jamaica (November 1783, section 120); arrangements for delivery of the female slave Mourning (October 1783, section 121); and arrangements for sale of several unnamed male slaves (section 122, pages. 15–16).

A 1770 deed to Hannah Phillippa (Ludwell) Lee (section 126) covers land and slaves in James City County, in particular the plantations of Green Spring, Rich Neck, and Hot Water. Slaves are individually named. Section 108 contains an extensive series of correspondence of Richard Henry Lee. Correspondence with his brother William Lee, at that time in England, is also well indexed. In 1770, Richard describes the distribution of trades among the slaves at Green Spring (164 total, fifty-nine field slaves, twelve house servants, four carpenters, one wheelwright, two shoemakers, and three gardeners and ostlers). In 1771 and 1772, Richard comments on the increased value of slaves on the plantations. A poor crop in 1772 must be the fault of the overseer because the land is good and is tended by seventy-four "crop Negroes." In 1773, William Lee buys and sells slaves on consignment; he chides his brother Richard for petitioning the king for the nonimportation of slaves.

Section 133 contains a letter, 1779, of Henry Lee at Dumfries to Charles Lee in Philadelphia in which arrangements are made for keeping Henry's slaves in jail and irons until James Whaley can retrieve them.

Lee family papers, 1732–1892. 71 items. Mss1L51b. Microfilm reel B21.
Lists, 1815–1818, compiled by William Claiborne and Thomas E. Stuart concern slaves in King William and New Kent counties belonging to George Washington Parke Custis. The slaves are listed by name, occupation, and family relationship and are grouped by specific plantation. Another list, 1829, compiled by William Brumley, concerns 27 slaves sold at Hanover Court House and provides names, ages, and costs of the sale (section 26).

Lee family papers, 1824–1918. 742 items. Mss1L51c. Microfilm reels A2 and C279–282.
Much of this particular collection focuses on Confederate general Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) and his wife, Mary Anna Randolph (Custis) Lee (1808–1873), and their correspondence.

In an undated letter (item c3) to Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) Custis, Mrs. Lee makes a brief statement of concern for the spirituality of slaves and the African race. In an 1860(?) letter (item c728), she writes to Anne Carter Lee about fugitive slaves in general. Her husband, Robert, is currently on duty in New York, and she has been visiting Canada. She remarks that there are many fugitive slaves in Canada and that soon Canada will have no choice but to send them away, leaving Africa their only refuge. The schools are segregated, and rarely does a white woman marry a black man. Her 1862 correspondence with Charlotte Georgiana (Wickham) Lee (items c366 and c369) provides news of the slaves at Romancoke—some have left, and one is serving his master in the army—and also the slave losses of friends and neighbors.

Lee wrote several times to Hill Carter concerning the hiring of Gardner and Daedalus (item c734, letterbook covering 1838–1860, in particular the letters of 22 January 1842 and 21 January and 14 February 1843); Judy and Philip Meriday were also hired out (1 and 21 February 1842 and 1 August 1852). Also in the same letterbook is an 8 February 1855 letter concerning the membership of his wife in the American Colonization Society. In 1849, while in Baltimore, Lee wrote his wife about the registration and fees for bringing slaves into the state (item c102, poor condition and partly illegible). In 1856 he writes her from Texas of his views on abolition and slavery in a moral and religious context (item c181, folios 344–345).

From 1862 to 1864 Lee wrote numerous letters to arrange for the emancipation of slaves from George W. P. Custis's estates in Arlington, King William, and New Kent counties (plantations of Arlington, Romancoke, and the White House, respectively) according to the provisions in his father-in-law's will (see items c412, folio 771; item c415, folio 774; item c419, folio 780; item c427, folios 789 and 792; item c487, folio 859; and item c500, folio 873). Item c412 also comments on the ability of certain slaves to adapt to army life. In item c500, he writes of his concern that the community near Romancoke is resisting his efforts to emancipate the slaves there; he suggests they should take their papers and leave. Item c626, an 1866 letter, concerns engaging a maid from Lynchburg; item c671, an 1869 letter, concerns hiring Jimmy, because he is a good gardener; and in item c703, an 1870 letter, Lee advises his wife to hire more servants, because additional guests will require more household help.

In a 9 March 1866 letter to Amanda Parks, Lee summarizes his efforts to emancipate the slaves at all three plantations (item c737, also on microfilm reel A2). Items c473 and c474 are letters to his wife relating that one of the freed slaves, Catharine Burke, has reached Washington, D.C., and has been quoted in the newspapers concerning Lee's opinions about the capture of his son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee. Item c738, also a letterbook, contains postwar letters in which Lee writes in general about freedom, states' rights, and secession (15 December 1866; 26 and 29 August and 18 September 1868).

Many of the letters of Robert E. Lee in this collection are available in published sources (such as The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, edited by Clifford Dowdey and Louis Manarin [1961]).

Leigh, Benjamin Watkins (1781–1849), letter, 1829. 2 pp. Mss2L5332a5.
Letter, 10 September 1829, Richmond, to William Branch Giles concerning the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830, Leigh's published notes on population and taxation by districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Giles's thoughts on the issue of slavery.

Leigh, Elizabeth Edmunds Monroe (b. 1893), "Ridgeway, Charlotte County, Virginia," ca. 1975. 12 pp. Mss5:1L5334:1. Photocopy.
Elizabeth Leighs memoirs are subtitled "Memories of Bessie Leighs Childhood Home Where She Was Born in 1893." They concern her childhood activities in Charlotte County at Ridgeway, a working farm. She remembers a black nurse as her "mammy" and discusses the construction of a church organized by whites for African Americans in Charlotte County.

Leigh family of King William County, papers, 1794–1893. 348 items. Mss1L5337a. Microfilm reel C265.
Correspondence and financial records of a planter family. Accounts of Richeson Leigh (section 4) in part concern the costs of taxation on slaves and the medical care of bondspeople. An agreement between James Meaux and Mary Richeson (section 8) covers the sale of Sukey "and her increase" in 1808.

Letcher, John (1813–1884), papers, 1770–1970. ca. 16,785 items. Mss1L5684aFA2.
John Letcher of Lexington was a lawyer and newspaper editor who served as a congressman, governor of Virginia during the first years of the Civil War, and a postwar state legislator. These papers cover all aspects of his personal life and legal and political career. This very large collection is divided into eleven series. The first series contains Letcher’s personal and family papers, including materials concerning his prewar residence in Lexington (accounts with builders include those with James Harper, a free African American, folder 63). Some items concern the hiring of slaves and the purchase of a slave woman (folder 71). The largest series of papers in this collection covers Letcher’s extensive antebellum legal practice in and around Lexington (series 2). Client files cover representation of Colonel John Jordan, a major figure in the iron industry in the Shenandoah Valley who also supplied laborers for work on a canal on the north fork of the James River (folders 81–82), and of William Weaver, owner of the Buffalo Iron Forge (folders 116–116a). Case files include S. Sherrard v. R. Tuck (folder 189) concerning arbitration over the hiring of slaves at the Bath Iron Works; Nelson Hicks v. George W. Taylor (folder 194), regarding the hiring of the slave Julia; William B. Roach’s trust file (folder 220), involving a case of slave stealing; and Letcher’s agency file for John Warren Grigsby (folder 244), which concerns the care and sale of slave children.

Letcher’s political files include a series of papers covering his campaign as a reform candidate for and service as a delegate in the 1850–1851 Virginia Constitutional Convention. Among the materials (series 4) are a pamphlet issued by the American Colonization Society concerning a March 1850 act of the Virginia General Assembly that funded the transportation of freed African Americans out of the state (folder 319) and printed memorials of the convention and state legislature to the United State Congress regarding the establishment of a mail steamer line between the U.S. and the western coast of Africa to encourage emigration to Liberia (folder 320). Letcher’s congressional files (series 5), covering his service between 1851 and 1859, include speeches on the territorial policy of the United States (folder 356). His papers concerning his service as governor (series 6) include campaign files, 1858–1859, in which items discuss the so-called Ruffner pamphlet controversy (regarding Letcher’s brief interest in a broad emancipation of Virginia slaves in the late 1840s). Correspondence as governor includes letters of Edmund Ruffin (January 1860), presenting a pike carried by one of John Brown’s Harpers Ferry raiders; J. R. Anderson & Co. of Richmond (August 1862) concerning the hiring of African American inmates at the state penitentiary to work at Tredegar Iron Works and at blast furnaces in Botetourt and Alleghany counties; Mrs. Let Page (November 1862) concerning a colony of fugitive slaves in Gloucester County threatening the local community; and Charles Blue (January 1863) regarding use of inmates from the state penitentiary to work on the public square in Richmond. Lastly, a series of materials concerning the death of John Letcher and attempts to gather records for a biography (series 9) includes a file compiled by Letcher’s son Greenlee Davidson Letcher (1867–1954) that also concern the Ruffner pamphlet controversy (folder 656).

A supplementary guide to this collection, including a complete folder list, is filed in hard copy with the papers or may be accessed electronically through the VMHC online catalog.

Lewis family papers, 1749–1920. 44 items. Mss1L5896b. Microfilm reel C433.
The Lewis family members were landowners in Rockingham County. Among their papers is an estate inventory, ca. 1790, of Thomas Lewis (1718–1790) of Rockingham County. Located in section 5, the inventory records names and values (in pounds); only a few mother-child relationships are indicated.

Lewis family papers, 1804–1884. 72 items. Mss2L585c. Microfilm reel B52.
The collection includes an 1847 deed to William Lewis of Spotsylvania County for the slave Caroline and her three children, Morton, Martha, and Richmond. There is also an 1850 hiring bond for Willis, property of Patsey Dillard, to the White Hall Mining Company, at a cost of $65, with usual clothing furnished, providing for the employer to pay the tax and allowing for a $2 deduction in physician's fees. Both items are located in section 5.

Link family papers, 1815–1830. 6 items. Mss2L6485b.
An eight-page document of affidavits, 1824, pertains to the lawsuit John Link v. Peter Link in the Virginia Superior Court of Chancery, Staunton District, and in part concerns the inheritance and ownership of a slave girl.

Litchfield family papers, 1837–1992. 1,598 items. Mss1L7115a.
Papers of members of the Bolling, Litchfield, Peirce, and Stuart families, primarily in Abingdon and Wytheville. Include an 1892 letter of Barton Haxall Wise to Wytheville attorney David Stuart Peirce (section 14) concerning an address by Peirce at Emory and Henry College and the negative effects of slavery on antebellum southern thought.

Llangollen School for Boys, Spotsylvania County, records, 1806–1849. 12 items. Mss3L7702a. Microfilm reels C358–359.
Concern the school started at Belle Aire, Spotsylvania County, in 1811 by John Lewis and later moved to Llangollen, also in Spotsylvania, in 1814. Records were kept by John Lewis. Sections 1, 2, and 4 contain account books, 1811–1818, 1819–1849, and 1825–1835, respectively, which contain information on the hiring of slaves.

Lockridge, Robert (b. 1809), papers, 1847–1866. 6 items. Mss2L8134b.
Among the papers of this Highland County resident is a letter, July 1847, from Isaac Gwin, slave of Shanklin McClintick of Rockbridge County, in which Gwin asks Lockridge to see about the purchase of Isaac and his wife so that they will not be separated; he anticipates his wife will be sold in the fall. An 1860 tax document indicates that Lockridge was taxed for four unnamed slaves.

Lupton family papers, 1745–1895. ca. 1,400 items. Mss1L9747aFA2. Microfilm reels C116–118.
David Lupton (1786–1814) was a Quaker lawyer of Frederick County and Winchester. He provided legal counsel and estate management for local residents, among them Henry Wells (d. 1815), also known as Black Harry or Free Harry. Box 1 contains appraisals and other records of Henry Wells's estate. Most of the items listed are agricultural in nature—tools, animals, and supplies. Also included are receipts covering business with local merchants. His papers include bonds for hire of slaves as well.

Updated June 4, 2009