I've been looking at these lists recently and come to understand that the lists were not comprehensive for all counties and cities in the Commonwealth. Some commissioners identified only those willing to emigrate, while others identified all FPOC they could identify in their jurisdiction.

The compilations are not sequential for all years. Thus you'll find a fairly consistent sequence in decade of the 1830's, closer to the post-Turner fright, but then the records seem to be missing for the decade of the 1840's. Then in the 1850's when additional legislation was passed to provide monies for transportation of emigrants to Liberia, you see the lists compiled once again.

I've focused only on the Norfolk records in terms of comparing the lists to the 1830, 1840 and 1850 federal censuses. What I've learned is that the free black population, at least in the city, was far more mobile than I'd imagined. While I found a consistent core of individuals named on the lists from year to year, I also found new names regularly. And these names coupled with other court records show that Norfolk was quite a busy port for free blacks entering and leaving the area.

Some other tentative conclusions I've drawn are that free blacks in some areas were against emigration. In Norfolk this was true, as more than 50% of the names appeared consistently in the lists from 1833 to 1851. Many of the individuals who lived long enough, who were identified in 1833, also appeared in the 1850 and later federal censuses.

I'm still in the midst of researching these records. I'm glad that Selma posted that someone is also working on these records.

If anyone is interested, I have the microfilm on loan from the Mormons(LDS) and will do a quick search. Unfortunately, the microfilm for all of the counties is not readable, so for some, the only sources are the original manuscripts at the Library of Virginia.