Virginia Untold: Commonwealth Causes

Virginia Untold provides digital access to records that document some of the lived experiences of enslaved and free Black people in the Library of Virginia’s collections. Please help improve the discoverability of these sources by transcribing one of the project's many record types, commonwealth causes.

Commonwealth causes are criminal court cases filed by the state government that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts handed down by juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code. Some commonwealth causes commonly found in Virginia Untold include cases against enslavers who permitted a gathering of enslaved people on their property. White Virginians and legislators feared insurrection and passed laws restricting the number of Black and multiracial people allowed to gather in groups. Enslavers could be fined for permitting their enslaved people to hire themselves out for work and enslaved people were jailed on these occasions. Other cases found in this collection might include crimes committed by both enslaved and free Black people such as breaking and entering, stealing, assault, murder, arson, and aiding enslaved people to self-emancipate. Formerly enslaved men and women could also be tried for remaining in the commonwealth more than one year following emancipation. In 1806, the General Assembly passed a law stating that all formerly enslaved people freed after May 1, 1806, were required to leave the commonwealth. Those who remained in the commonwealth more than twelve months could be put on trial by the state, and if found guilty, would be re-enslaved and sold. The proceeds from the sale went to the state treasury, and often, records of those sales can be found in the Public Claims records from the Auditor of Public Accounts.