Archive for Lawrence Co.

Emancipation of Tom of Lawrence County

Below is an extract from the Acts of Alabama, 1818 to 1828, found online.  This is one of many Acts pertaining to people of color that will be posted on this blog. The original documents are at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, AL. 

An act to authorise Killis Walton to emancipate a negro man named Tom (1820).

Session: Annual Session, Oct – Dec 1820

Page: 80 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in General Assembly convened, That Killis Walton, of Lawrence county, be, and he is hereby authorised and empowered to emancipate and set free a negro man slave, aged forty years, named Tom, so soon as the said Killis Walton, shall have executed to the chairman, or chief justice of the county court of Lawrence, and his successors it office, a bond, with sufficient security, to be approved by the county court, conditioned, that said negro man slave Tom, shall never become chargeable to this State, or any county or town within the same.

 [Approved, December 11, 1820.]

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