Location: Halifax County, VA • Year: 1851

Abstract: In his will Craddock Vaughan, deceased, emancipated the petitioners. He wished to give them the "full, and free enjoyment of all the rights, and immunities of Free persons of Colour." By his slave Eleanor, Vaughan had fathered six children and had "raised them as his own." The children are three-fourths white. He also freed Dicey, a favorite slave. Though a man of intemperate habits, he had accumulated an estate worth seven or eight thousand dollars, including land and seven slaves in addition to his family. He left his Dan River farm, his stock, personal property, and slaves to Eleanor and her children and provided a maintenance allowance to Dicey. The executor hired an overseer to "control every thing, and keep order." Considering themselves "beyond the sphere of the Free negro class" which was "generally so degraded," they ask to remain in the commonwealth.