Extract from deed of Joseph Hill, of Isle of Wight County, dated March
6th, 1783:
"I, Joseph Hill, of Isle of Wight County in Virginia, after full and
deliberate consideration, and agreeable to our Bill of Rights, am
fully persuaded that freedom is the natural life of all mankind, and
that no law, moral or divine, hath given me a just right or property
in the persons of any of my fellow-creatures, and desirous to fulfil
the injunction of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, by doing to
all others as I would be done by in a like situation ... do hereby
emancipate and set free all and every of the above named slaves,
&c."[148]
Extract from deed of Charles Moorman, of Campbell County, dated
September 1st, 1789:
"I, Charles Moorman, from mature consideration and the conviction of
my own mind, being fully persuaded that freedom is the natural right
of all mankind, and that no law, moral or divine, has given me a
right to or property in the persons of any of my fellow-creatures,
and being desirous to fulfil the injunction of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, by doing to others as I would be done by—do therefore
declare that having under my care twenty-eight slaves, (naming
them), I do for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators,
hereby release unto them the said slaves all my rights, interest,
claims or pretensions of claims whatsoever to their persons or any
estate they may acquire, &c."[149]
Extracts from deeds of Robert Carter, of Westmoreland County, each
dated the 1st day of January, 1793:
"Whereas the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia did in
the year seventeen hundred and eighty-two enact a law entitled 'An
Act to Authorize the Manumission of Slaves,' know all men by these
presents that I, Robert Carter, of Nomony Hall, in the County of
Westmoreland, do under the said act for myself, my heirs, executors
and administrators, emancipate and forever set free from slavery the
following slaves." (Here follow the names of the slaves,
twenty-seven in number.)[150]