YORK-BALLARD, VA, Emancipation, 1783

Following is a transcript of an emancipation document by
William Ballard (1715-1793) with which he freed a slave
named "York."  (He, Ballard, was my sixth great
grandfather.)  William Ballard was a Quaker and, because the
Religious Society of Friends decided about this time to
forbid slaveholding among its members, he may have been
acting in obedience to that then-new policy.

1783-7-24. Writing of Emancipation-Ballard to York. I
William Ballard of  the County of Bedford Virginia being
fully persuaded that freedom is the  Natural Right of all
Man Kind + being desirous to full fill the Injunction of our
Lord + Saviour Jesus Christ by doing unto others as I would
be done by do therefore declare that having under my Care a
Negro Boy named Squire York aged about thirteen years I do
hereby for myself my Heirs + Emancipate + Set free the above
named Negro Boy after he shall arrive to Lawful age which he
shall Enjoy in as full an ample manner as if he had been
Born of free Parents + do hereby Relinquish unto the said
Squire York all my Right title Interest or claim or
Pretentions of Claim whatsoever or any person Claiming for
by or under me 

In Witness where of I have here unto set my hand + Seal this
24th day of the Second Month Seventeen Hundred + Eighty
three. Recorded 24th February 1783. William Ballard (S. L.)
D. B. G. 7, pp.181-2. [The Valentine Papers]

Questions?  Please contact me.
Mark E. Dixon
Wayne, PA.