Hi Carla. The mixed-race Chapmans of Mecklenburg County descend from Betty Chapman of adjoining Lunenburg County:

1.Betty Chapman, born say 1756, sued Frezill McTeir for her freedom in Lunenburg County court on 11 September 1777. He was called Frizell Martin on 13 May 1779 when the court ordered her discharged from his service. On 10 July 1800 the court summoned Henry Freeman to show cause why he was detaining her children Lizzy and Mary Chapman who were suggested to the court to be entitled to their freedom [Orders 1777-84, 3, 28; 1799-1801, fol. 84]. She was living on Flat Rock Creek, Lunenburg County in 1802 and 1803 when she was counted in a "List of free Negroes & Mulattoes" with her children: Nancy, Winny, Lucy, Charlotte, Henry, and Biddy [Library of Virginia, Lunenburg County, Free Negro & Slave Records, 1802-1803]. (See the site below under Virginia for more on the family).

Since she was a servant free before 1782, she probably descended from a white woman.
Paul