Extract from deed of Francis Preston, of Washington County, dated the
20th day of September, 1793:
"Whereas my negro man, John (alias) John Broady, claims a promise of
freedom from his former master, General William Campbell, for his
faithful attendance on him at all times, and more particularly while
he was in the army in the last war, and I who claim the said negro,
in right of my wife, daughter of said General William Campbell,
feeling a desire to emancipate the said negro man John as well for
the fulfilment of the above mentioned promise as the gratification
of being instrumental of promoting a participation of liberty to a
fellow-creature, who by nature is entitled thereto, do by these
presents, for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, fully
emancipate and make free, to all intents and purposes, the said
negro man John (alias) John Brody from me and my heirs
forever."[152]
Extract from the will of Richard Randolph, Jr., admitted to record in
Clerk's Office of Prince Edward County, April 8th, 1797:
"In the first place—to make retribution as far as I am able to an
unfortunate race of bondsmen over whom my ancestors have usurped and
exercised the most lawless and monstrous tyranny, and in whom my
countrymen by their iniquitous laws in contradiction of their own
Declaration of Rights ... have vested me with absolute property; ...
to exculpate myself to those who may perchance think or hear of me
after death from the black crime which otherwise would be imputed to
me of voluntarily holding the above mentioned miserable beings in
the same state of abject slavery in which I found them on receiving
my patrimony at lawful age; to impress my children with just horror
at a crime so enormous and indelible, and to adjure them in the last
words of a fond father never to participate in it ... I do declare
that it is my will and desire, nay, most anxious wish, that my
negroes, all of them, be liberated, and I do declare them by this
writing free and emancipated to all intents and purposes
whatsoever."[153]
Extract from the will of George Washington, dated July 9th, 1799,
recorded in the Clerk's Office of Fairfax County:
"Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the
slaves whom I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom. To
emancipate them during her life would, though earnestly wished by
me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties on account of
their intermixture by marriage with the dower negroes as to excite
the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences to the
latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same
proprietor; it not being in my power under the tenure by which the
dower negroes are held to manumit them."
The will further provides that all slaves who at the time of their
emancipation are unable, by reason of old age, bodily infirmities, or
youth, to support themselves shall be cared for out of his estate, the
testator declaring:
"I do moreover most pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my
executors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to see that
this clause respecting slaves and every part thereof be religiously
fulfilled at the epoch at which it is directed to take place without
evasion, neglect or delay, after the crops which may then be in the
ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and
infirm; seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established for
their support as long as there are subjects requiring it."[154]
Extract from the will of Jesse Bonner, of Dinwiddie, dated 8th April,
1797, and admitted to probate 17th April, 1803:
"Item: I leave the use of the plantation whereon I now live and my
New Survey adjoining it to my beloved wife, Rebecca Bonner, during
her life or widowhood; also all the negroes belonging to me.
"Item: My will and desire is that all the above negroes which I have
lent to my beloved wife, Rebecca Bonner, namely (here the slaves,
fifteen in number, are named), with all their increase from this
day, be emancipated and go free at the death or marriage of my
beloved wife, Rebecca Bonner.
"Item: My will and desire is that if I have no child the plantation
whereon I now live together with my New Survey, be given to my
negroes and their heirs forever, after the death or marriage of my
beloved wife, Rebecca Bonner." [155]
The reader will observe, that in many of the foregoing extracts the
anti-slavery sentiments of the emancipators are freely and vigorously
expressed and the act of emancipation is, in many instances, based
upon the conviction that slavery was repugnant alike to the political
institutions of the state and the principles of the Christian
religion.