Under British rule, slaveholders were forbidden to manumit their
slaves, except with the permission of the Council.[48] In 1782, the
General Assembly of Virginia enacted a law, under which slaveholders
were authorized to emancipate their slaves by deed or will duly made
and recorded.[49]
By an act passed in 1785, it was provided that slaves brought into the
state and remaining twelve months should be free.[50]
In 1787, acts were passed validating certain manumissions made by
wills prior to 1782, the General Assembly declaring that it was "just
and proper" that "the benevolent intentions" of the testators should
be carried into effect.[51]
In 1788, an act was passed making the enslaving of the child of free
blacks a crime punishable by death upon the scaffold.[52]
In 1795, an act was passed allowing a slave to sue _in forma pauperis_
in any court proceedings affecting his freedom. He might make
complaint to the nearest magistrate or court and the owner was then
required to give bond to permit the slave to attend the next term of
the court and maintain his cause. If the owner failed or refused to
comply, the slave was taken into the custody of the state, counsel was
assigned to defend his cause and every process of the law allowed him
without cost.[53] Following the adoption of the foregoing laws, the
General Assembly, in 1803, passed an act to still further safeguard
the rights of negroes who had secured their freedom. By this last act
the authorities were required to keep registers in each county in
which were to be recorded the names of all the free negroes and also
the names of slaves whose right to manumission would accrue upon the
death of the person having only an estate for life in such slaves.