I don't know if this website will help answer your question but it has great information about many African-Americans who were free prior to the civil war, it includes many ancestors and descendants of families who began in Virginia and moved to other states. I was researching a Bush family and came across the information for a EDWARD CARTER who was free, and in 1780 he was the fourth largest land owner in Dobbs County, North Carolina with 23,292 acres. In February of 1773, the dobbs County Court recommended to the General Assembly that Edward Carter's daughters, Tamer, Deaver, Margaret, Rachel, Ann, Sally, Patience, and Elizabeth, be exempted from the discriminatory tax against female children of African-Americans. Rachel Bush appears as head of household on 1800 census for Lenoir County, NC (formerly Dobbs Co., NC) and owned her own land.
The website is:
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/introduction.htm

Good luck with your research.