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This act shows the ways in which Virginia regulated manumitting (freeing) of enslaved people and the subsequent race-based laws for freedpeople.

Recounting a selective portion of an enslaved woman’s life, this brief biography also serves as a reflection of what mainstream society deemed “worthy” during the early to mid-19th century. Precisely because Alice supposedly embodied characteristics that were both exceptional and ordinary, her story offers a useful lens to consider how slavery was understood in its time.

Written in 1900, this text presents the views of a former enslaver about the value of slavery for those enslaved.