Glossary of Terms

A

A vinculo matrimonii: A court-authorized divorce by which a marriage is dissolved. Both parties are generally allowed to remarry. Also known as a divorce from the bonds of matrimony.
Abandonment: When a spouse leaves the marital residence or an enslaver deserts an enslaved person/enslaved people.
Abolition: The elimination of slavery.
Abolitionists: Individuals or societies active in advancing the elimination of slavery.
Absentee owners: Enslavers who do not reside on the plantation with an enslaved person/enslaved people.
Absolute slavery: Enslaved for life; not term slavery.
Administrator/Administratrix: Refers to a person (male/female) with the court-appointed right to manage and settle the estate of an individual who died without leaving a will.
Adultery: Sexual relations with a person other than one's legal spouse, either free or enslaved. In the source documents it is sometimes referred to as criminal conversation, illicit connection, and other related terms.
Advancement: A legacy or bequest received during the testator's lifetime.
Alcohol, right to sell/buy: Any reference to regulations governing the right of enslaved and free people of color to buy and/or sell alcohol.
Alimony: An allowance sought by a spouse for maintenance upon or pending a legal separation or divorce. It can also appear in the documents as "support," "maintenance," "necessaries of life," or other related terminology.
Annuity: The annual payment of an allowance or support.
Annul: Declare invalid (an official agreement, decision, or result).
Anti-abolition: The expression of opinions defending the institution of slavery, and/or attacking those favoring its abolition.
Apprenticeship/indentures: Used to denote a legal relationship that binds a free person of color to serve an enslaver, primarily a white person, until age twenty-one for the purpose of learning a trade. The contract implies obligations on both sides.
Assault: A violent attack, verbal or physical, by one person on another. The attacker and/or the victim can be male, female, slave, free person of color or white.
Assessed Value (enslaved): The assessed value of an enslaved person or group of enslaved people provided by any individual, including court-appointed appraisers.
Assign/Assignee: To transfer one's rights, for which one usually receives compensation.
Attachment: The legal process by which a defendant’s property is taken into legal custody to satisfy a plaintiff's demands.
Auctions: Public selling of enslaved persons to the highest bidder. It can also appear in the source documents as “cried off," “vendue,” “public outcry,” and other related terms.

B

Bankruptcy: The inability to pay outstanding debts, often resulting in the seizure of enslaved people. It appears in the documents when someone is described as being insolvent or bankrupt.
Bequeath: To leave a legacy to a person or other beneficiary.
Bequest: A legacy.
Bequest (enslaved): The act of giving or leaving something through a will to an enslaved person.
Burthen: A historical term for burden.

C

Canada, migration to: Used when Canada is cited as the destination for freedom seekers.
Caribbean Islands, migration to/from: The movement of Blacks and whites between the Caribbean Islands and the slaveholding states of the American South, and/or the revolutionary events that typically triggered such movement.
Casually lost: A term describing the contention by an enslaver that their legal enslaved property fell in the hands of another person by unknown means. Used only when the specific term appears in the documents. Can include the theft of an ensalved person from an enslaved by another individual.
Caveat: A notice given by an interested party requesting that no action be taken on an order of the court until their case has been heard.
Cestui que trust: A beneficiary of a trust estate.
Charitable organizations: Any private or public organization established for the purpose of assisting people in need, enslaved or free.
Chattel: An article of personal property.
Chose in action: A party’s right to any personal thing not in their possession, but recoverable by law. Can also refer to the recovery of a debt, stocks, or to reparations.
Church, right to attend: Any reference to regulations governing the right of enslaved people to practice religion and attend church. Also used in instances when enslaved people are described as going to church or practicing a religion.
Churches: Mentions of specific congregations and/or religious denominations
Civil War, impact of: The anticipated or actual consequences of the American Civil War on all members of the slaveholding society.
Clandestine economy: Selling, buying, and bartering among enslaved people, and between enslaved people and free persons. Such transactions may or may not be sanctioned by an enslaver or by law. When not sanctioned, can be referred to as clandestine economy.
Colonization: The concept of resettling emancipated enslaved people to points outside of the United States, primarily Liberia. This subject also includes all mentions of specific colonization societies that were founded to facilitate the transportation and resettlement of emancipated blacks. This subject is used whenever Liberia is referenced.
Commissioner: A court-appointed official with various responsibilities, such as appraising estates and submitting reports of estate sales to the court.
Committee: A person or persons appointed by the court to oversee the rights, property, and body of someone with mental illness.
Community property: Primarily used in Louisiana; property acquired during a marriage by the joint efforts of both spouses, and thus owned in common; it is used in opposition to separate property. After the death of a parent, their estate becomes community property of their heirs and the surviving parent.
Concealing (enslaved): The crime of hiding and enslaved person/enslaved people from their legal owner.
Consideration: The inducement (monetary or otherwise) used when parties enter into a contract; specifically, it is the promise given by one party in return for the act or promise of the other
Conspiracy: Used in the context of slave rebellions; that is, the act of two or more individuals coming together for the purpose of encouraging and organizing rebellions.
Cooper: A barrel maker.
Crops: This category includes the cultivation, harvesting, and selling of five specific crops when mentioned in the documents: cotton, rice, sugar, timber, and tobacco
Crops (cotton): A crop. A soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae.
Crops (rice): A crop. A starchy grain of an annual marsh grass, Oryza sativa, cultivated in warm climates and used for food.
Crops (sugar): A crop. A sweet crystalline substance obtained from various plants, especially sugar cane and sugar beet, consisting essentially of sucrose.
Crops (timber): A crop. Wood prepared for use in building and carpentry.
Crops (tobacco): A crop. The common name of several plants in the Nicotiana genus of the Solanaceae family, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants.

D

Death of enslaved (disease): Used whenever illness is cited as the cause of an enslaved person's death.
Death of enslaved (other): Used whenever an enslaved person dies from injuries received in an accident, from punishment, homicide, or suicide.
Deed of gift: A document that conveys a gift to another individual.
Deed of indenture: A contract that outlines the obligations of an apprentice and and enslaver.
Deed of trust: A document that conveys property to another individual.
Demurrer: The defendant's answer to the petitioner's complaint.
Deposition: A court document that records the answers of a witness to certain questions or interrogatories; supplemental information introduced as evidence in a court proceeding.
Destruction of property: Primarily used in the context of enslaved persons accused of sabotage. Can also be used in cases of dispute between property owners. Includes all methods of intentional destruction of non-enslaved property, including arson.
Devisee: A person who receives a legacy from a will.
Diseases (mental): Primarily "insanity" or dementia. Used when someone is described as a "lunatic," an "idiot," or an "imbecile." Also used when a person is described as having some undefined mental illness.
Diseases (physical): Covers the range of physical ailments. Used when a person is described as being afflicted with a specific disease(s) or with a condition.
Disenfranchisement: The state of being deprived of a right or privilege.
Dismiss: The court’s rejection of a petitioner’s request.
Dissipated: To be reckless or to squander.
Distributee: A person who receives a portion of an estate’s distribution.
Divorce: The legal termination of a marriage or a legally sanctioned separation of the spouses. Divorce was not a legal option in South Carolina during the period covered by the source documents; therefore the subject "divorce" was not selected for that state.
Domestic violence: Physical and verbal violence among family members. Primarily used when acts of physical or verbal violence were alleged to have been perpetrated by one spouse on another.
Dotal: Primarily used in Louisiana; the portion of a wife's separate property that was acquired by dowry.
Dower: The right of a widow to one third of her late husband’s estate.
Dropsy: An affliction associated with swelling.
Drunkenness: Excessive use of alcoholic beverages; sometimes appears in the source documents as “consumption of ardent spirits,” “habitual (or beastly) inebriation,” “intemperance,” and other related terms.

E

Education and literacy (enslaved)
Education and literacy (FPOC): Used when there is evidence of a free person of color being taught a trade or to read and write.
Emancipation laws: Used whenever an enslaved person or group of enslaved people are entitled to freedom as a result of state, territory, or federal legislation abolishing slavery.
Embarrassed: A person who is heavily in debt, often described as having "pecuniary difficulties"
Emolument: Profit
Enfranchisement: The giving of a right or privilege, including the right to vote, liberation from imprisonment or enslavement.
Enslaver (FPOC): Used whenever a free person of color is identified as an enslaver.
Enslaver (minors): Persons under the age of twenty-one who own or are entitled to own enslaved people.
Enslavers without land: Individuals who own enslaved people but no land on which the enslaved can work.
Enticing (enslaved): The act of encouraging enslaved people to not submit to their enslaver or to leave. Slaves can be enticed by white people, free people of color, and other enslaved people.
Equity of redemption: To foreclose on a mortgage.
Escheat: The process where property that once belonged to an individual reverts, or is taken back, by the state.
Ex parte: A judicial proceeding brought for the benefit of one party only, without notice to or challenge from an adverse party.
Execute: To sign
Execution (enslaved): The carrying out of a sentence of death of an enslaved person.
Executor/Executrix: Refers to a person (male/female) designated in a will to execute the wishes of the testator.

F

Family head: The person to whom all other family members are shown as being related.
Family kept together (Black): When an enslaved family is kept together.
Family separated (Black): When an enslaved family is separated.
Fear of enslavement: Used whenever free persons of color express a fear that they may be enslaved or re-enslaved. The subject is also used when enslaved people who have been promised freedom express a fear that they will be kept in slavery for life.
Feme sole: This term refers to a single woman, whether widowed, divorced, or never married. It is usually used in the context of a woman’s ability to own and manage property, as well as conduct business, without the authorization of her father, husband, or any other appointed guardian.
Fieri facias, A writ of: A written command issued by a judge in order to enforce the collection of a claim that has gone to judgment and become final.
Forced reproduction: The economic decision, through deliberate planning, to ensure the increase of enslaved persons over and beyond natural reproduction. The subject is used when the value of an enslaved woman is expressed in terms of her reproductive ability.
Forgery: The action of forging or producing a copy of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.
FPOC sues FPOC: Used whenever at least one petitioner and at least one defendant in the suit is a free person of color.
FPOC sues white: Used whenever at least one petitioner in the suit is a free person of color and at least one defendant is a white person.
FPOC sues white: Used whenever at least one petitioner in the suit is a free person of color and at least one defendant is a white person.
Freed by enslaver: Used whenever an enslaver or a group of citizens signal his/her/their intent to manumit an enslaved person or group of enslaved people.
Freedom papers: Legal documents verifying the freedom status of a person of color. It can also appear in the source documents as certificate of freedom, or other related terminology.
Freedom seekers: An enslaved person or an apprenticed person of color who has allegedly or actually left his/her place of residence without the owner's permission. An enslaved person could run away to freedom or merely absent himself/herself for a few days before returning to his/her enslaver. It can also appear in the documents as "runaway," “lying out,” “absconding,” and other related terms.
Freedom suit: The process of an enslaved individual coming to court to petition for his/her freedom.
Freeholder: A person who owns real estate.
Frees own family (FPOC): Used whenever reference is made to free people of color manumitting members of their family.

G

Gambling: The wagering something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the intent of winning something else of value.
Gaol: Jail.
Griffe: Historically referred to a person who was believed to be one-quarter European descent and three-quarters African descent. Alternately, it could refer to someone of African and Native American ancestry.
Guardian ad litem: Latin for "Guardian at law." One who is appointed by the court to protect the interests of a minor involved in a lawsuit.
Guardianship (FPOC): A state requirement that each free person of color, over the age of fifteen, be under the guardianship of a court-appointed white person. Primarily used when a free person of color, in compliance with the law, petitions a court for the approval and appointment of a guardian he or she has selected.

H

Habeas corpus: A writ requiring a person to be brought before a judge or court.
Hack: A carriage that can be hired.
Heirs dispute: A suit filed by heirs of an estate against other heirs. Primarily used when heirs disagree over a will and/or the distribution of property.
Held as enslaved: This subject refers to free people of color, held in enslavement, who ask the court to release them from bondage and/or affirm their free status. Used whenever documents provide clear evidence that an individual was born free or has been legally declared free, and/or has been living as a free person for an extended period of time.
Hiring value (enslaved): The estimated or actual hiring value of an enslaved person or group of enslaved people, given at a monthly or annual rate.
Homicide: The death of one person at the hand of another person. Includes infanticide.

I

Illegitimacy: All references to and evidence of the birth of a child out of wedlock. It can also appear in the source documents as “natural child,” “bastard,” and related terms.
In forma pauperis: Latin for "in the form of a pauper". A petitioner who cannot afford the costs of a lawsuit can petition the court to waive normal costs.
In solido: An obligation where multiple parties are individually liable for the whole. For example, when several people have jointly borrowed the same item, they are all bound for it “in solido” to the one who loaned the item. Only used in Louisiana civil law.
Incompetent: The legal inability to perform certain tasks, due to mental incapacity or age.
Increase/Issue: Offspring/Having children of one's own.
Indentured servant: A person who must serve another individual for a specific term of years.
Indigent: Poor.
Infant: A minor under legal age.
Inheritors (enslaved): The inclusion of an enslaved person or group of people as recipient(s) of a monetary or non-monetary legacy in a enslaver's will.
Insolvency: The state of being unable to pay debts.
Insubordination: The actual or alleged behavior of enslaved people or free people of color who refuse to submit to the authority of an enslaver.
Insurance (enslaved)
Insurrections/Revolts (enslaved): Insurance policies taken by enslavers and/or slave traders to protect themselves against the decrease or loss of value in their enslaved property.
Interracial relationships: Used whenever reference is made to the existence or consequence of a sexual relationship between two people of different ethnicities, whether free or enslaved.
Interracial socializing: Used whenever reference is made to the existence of non-sexual social interaction between and among people of different ethnicities, whether free or enslaved.
Intestate: One who dies without a valid will. This person is referred to as "an intestate."
Inventory (enslaved): Used whenever a specific petition and/or related documents contain a list of twenty or more named enslaved people held by an enslaver or estate. The number twenty has been chosen to correspond to the widely accepted designation of planter status.

J

Jails/Workhouses: Used whenever a white person, an enslaved person, or a free person of color is detained in jail or prison. A workhouse is a type of jail for the exclusive keeping and punishment of enslaved people at the discretion of an enslaver.

K

Kidnapped (FPOC): The forcible and illegal seizure of a free person of color, often with the intent of enslaving them.

L

Laudanum: A narcotic derived from opium.
Legacy: A gift of property mentioned in a person’s will.
Legatee: A person who receives a legacy from a will.
Levy: To seize or collect for debts.
Life estate: Interest in real and/or property given to an individual (a “life tenant”) for the balance of that person’s life. Usually, a life tenant cannot dispose of the life estate without the consent of the court. Also called "life interest."
Likely: A term used to describe an enslaved person as valuable.
Loathsome disease: A term describing sexually transmitted disease.

M

Management (enslaved): Used when there is evidence of an attempt by the enslaver or an overseer to control the behavior of an enslaved person or group of enslaved peoples and/or to make them productive. Also used in instances where the composition or size of an enslaver's property is not conducive to a productive operation.
Mantua maker: A person who makes a specific woman's garment.
Manumission: The freeing of an individual or group of enslaved people by will, purchase, legal petition, or legislation.
Manumit: To free.
Marital right: A husband's legal right to his wife's property.
Mechanic: A skilled workman, often a contractor; not someone associated with machinery.
Medical treatment: The application of medical techniques and/or medication by a physician for the purpose of treating an illness primarily in enslaved people. It is sometimes used when there is evidence that medical treatment fails to be provided by an enslaver for the treatment of his/her enslaved people.
Memorialist: One who submits a petition.
Meritorious service: Extreme acts of devotion or loyalty that serve as grounds for freeing an enslaved person.
Militias/patrols: Federal, state, county, or local organizations of men for the purpose of providing civil defense and public peace. This subject is primarily used in cases where militias or patrols were organized to enforce codes of enslaved conduct and to quell suspected/actual uprisings by enslaved people.
Mortgage value (enslaved): The collateral value of an enslaved person or group of enslaved people used to secure a debt.
Mulatto: A person who has one white parent and one Black or mulatto parent.

N

Native Americans: An individual with known or unknown tribal affiliation, or where multiple identities are represented. Historically referred to a person who was believed to be indigenous North, Central, and South America, especially those of North America.
Ne exeat, A writ of: A judge's written command to restrain a person from leaving the jurisdiction of the court until he or she has satisfied or pledged to satisfy a claim. Failure to comply can result in an arrest.
Next friend: An individual suing on behalf of another person (a minor, married woman, etc.) without full legal capacity.
Non-plantation/Non-household work (enslaved): When there is evidence that an enslaved person is working in a non-plantation environment, such as, but not restricted to, factories, trading houses, ships or steamboats, the docks, mines, and hotels. This also includes incidences where an enslaved person is hired out to perform such work.
Nurse: A caregiver that often has no medical responsibilities; when associated with children, the equivalent of a nanny.

O

Occupation (FPOC): This subject is used whenever reference is made to free people of color, including apprentices, who are engaged in a specific occupation or business. Also includes references to free people of color who own or run a business.
Of the half blood: Related through one parent (i.e. a stepchild).
Opprobrious: Extremely shameful.
Orator/Oratrix: A term for male/female petitioners.
Orphans: Used whenever there is evidence that a child has lost both parents. Also used when a person is specifically described as being an orphan, even if there is evidence that one of the parents is still alive.
Overseers: A person hired by an enslaver to manage his/her plantation and his/her enslaved people.

P

Paraphernal: Primarily used in Louisiana; the portion of a wife's separate property acquired other than by dowry or marriage settlement; for example gift or inheritance.
Paroxysm: A sudden, violent expression.
Partition: To divide into portions.
Passing as white: A person of color attempting or successfully concealing his/her ethnicity so as to be perceived and treated as a white person.
Personal estate: Moveable articles of property, such as enslaved people, furniture and money. Distinguished from real property. Laws defining personal, as opposed to real, property vary across states.
Petition: A court document recounting a person’s request for legal remedy; also referred to as a bill or bill of complaint.
Poisoning: The action of administering poison to a person or animal/being affected by or contaminated with poison.
Police jury: Primarily used in Louisiana; an elected panel of twelve citizens who decide whether a petition can be heard by the court.
Prenuptial agreement: A written document containing the terms of agreement concerning property, including enslaved property, owned by the parties to an anticipated marriage. It may also appear in the documents as a marriage contract or marriage settlement.
Pro confesso: The granting of a petition due to the absence of the defendant.
Promissory note: When one party promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to the other, either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms. An IOU.
Property owners: Free people of color who own property of any kind, (excluding enslaved people). May also apply to enslaved people owning property.
Purchase of family: Used whenever reference is made to free people of color purchasing members of their family, often but not always with the intent of manumitting them.
Purchase of freedom: Money paid to an enslaver in return for the owner emancipating the enslaved person. The price can be paid by a third party, a family member, or by the enslaved person himself or herself.
Purchase/Sale (enslaved children): The purchase or sale of an enslaved child, age twelve or under, separate from his or her family.
Purchase/Sale (enslaved family): The purchase or sale of two or more enslaved people with an identified family relationship.
Purchase/Sale prices (enslaved): The purchase or sale price of an enslaved person or group of enslaved people, primarily expressed in currency.
Purchased for emancipation: Money paid to an enslaver in return for them emancipating an enslaved person. The price can be paid by a third party, a family member, or by the enslaved person himself or herself.

Q

Quadroon: A person born of one white and one mulatto parent. There are multiple spellings of this word, among which “quartroon” and “quatroon”, both of which are a derivative of the French equivalent “quarteron” (for a male) or “quarteronne” (for a female).

R

Rape: The crime of using force or the threat of force to compel a person to submit to sexual intercourse.
Real estate: Immoveable articles of property, such as land and buildings, which can be owned. Distinguished from personal property.
Refractory: Stubborn or unmanageable.
Remainder interest: The residue of an estate that can only be distributed to an individual after another person’s interest in the estate has terminated.
Remainderman/Remaindermen: Person/persons who have a remainder interest in a life estate.
Remove: To leave or move away from.
Republic of Texas: A sovereign state in North America that existed from 1836 to 1845; in 1845 it joined the United States.
Revivor, a bill of: The continuance of a previously-filed bill. A bill is “revived” when one party to the suit has become incapable to prosecute or defend it due to a number of circumstances, including death or change in legal status.
Right to assemble (Black): Mention of regulations governing the rights of a group of enslaved people and/or free people of color to assemble, and the violation thereof.
Right to carry (enslaved): The regulations governing the right of enslaved people and free people of color to carry a weapon.
Right to carry (FPOC): The regulations governing the right of enslaved people and free people of color to carry a weapon.
Right to reside in a state: Used when free people of color, in compliance with a state law petition the court to remain in the state. Also used when free people of color express fear that they may be expelled from the state.
Rights of citizenship: Mentions of the state of being free and/or endowed with the rights of citizenship (enfranchisement). Conversely, complaints regarding the state of being deprived of freedom and/or without the rights of citizenship (disenfranchisement).

S

Scrofula: Tuberculosis
Security: Becoming a “security” or a “surety” usually involves the posting of a bond either to an individual or to the state. Designed to protect the individual or the state from having to shoulder the costs involved in situations perceived as risky.
Seniors (enslaved): An enslaved person sixty years of age and over. Also used when an enslaved person is described as elderly or advanced in age.
Seniors (FPOC): A free person of color sixty years of age and over. Also used when a person of color is described as elderly or advanced in age.
Separate property: Primarily used in Louisiana; property brought to the marriage or inherited by one of the spouses and thus separately owned by that spouse, apart from the community property; it is used in opposition to community property.
Separation from bed and board: A court-authorized divorce that entails living separately but does not dissolve the bonds of matrimony. By this form of divorce, the parties are not allowed to remarry. Also known as a divorce “a mensa et thoro."
Sequestration, a writ of: A written command usually issued to a sheriff ordering the appropriation of a person’s property in order to satisfy the claims of a creditor. The property is held in the court’s possession until either the debtor has satisfied the creditor’s interest or the property is sold for the creditor’s benefit.
Sex workers/Promiscuity: Used whenever a woman is described as being a "prostitute," or living or working in a brothel. Also includes mention of men and women allegedly engaging in sexual encounters with multiple people.
Ships: Used whenever a ship (named or unnamed) is mentioned in relation to the transportation of enslaved people. Can also be used when a ship is mentioned as a place of work for enslaved people and/or free people of color.
Skills (enslaved): Used whenever an enslaved person is identified as possessing or practicing a particular skill.
Slander: The making of a false and malicious statement injurious to another person's reputation. Defamation of a person's character may be the subject of a suit or, in some cases, it may be listed as one of the grievances in divorce cases.
Slave trade (Atlantic): The buying, selling, and transportation of enslaved people between Africa and the Americas by people engaged in such trade. Also used when people are identified as engaged in the trade.
Slave trade (domestic): The buying, selling, and transportation of enslaved people between states of the American South by people engaged in such trade. Also used when people are identified as engaged in the trade.
St. Dominique: Modern-day Haiti.
State residency issues (FPOC): When a free person of color encountered residency issues, such as if they could legally reside in the state they lived in.
Steam packets: Steamboats.
Sues for freedom (enslaved): An enslaved person who sues a person or persons holding him/her in slavery in order to be set legally free. Grounds for suing for freedom include, but are not necessarily restricted to, promise of freedom in a will, birth or residence in a non-slaveholding state, and lineage from a free white mother or a free woman of color.
Sues to recover freedom (FPOC)
Suicide: The act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Swapping (enslaved): The trading of an enslaved person for one or more other enslaved people, in lieu of monetary payment.
Syndic: A person appointed to represent an organization in business transactions; a business agent.

T

Taxation (enslaved): Used whenever there is mention of taxes being paid by an enslaver on his/her enslaved property.
Tenants in common: A legal arrangement by which multiple individuals own and control shares in the same piece of property.
Term slavery: An individual held in servitude for a set period of time; as opposed to being enslaved for life, whose period of service ends only at death. The term often used in Louisiana when speaking of a term slave is "statu liber."
Testate/Testator: One who dies leaving a valid will.
Testimony (enslaved): Used whenever an enslaved person testifies or gives a deposition in a legal suit.
Testimony (FPOC): Used whenever a free person of color testifies or gives a deposition in a legal suit.
Theft by enslaved: Used whenever an enslaved person is accused of stealing.
Theft of enslaved: The act of taking illegal possession of another enslaver's enslaved person. Used whenever a person accuses another person of stealing his/her enslaved person or when there is evidence that the illegal possession of an enslaved person has been gained through force and/or enticement without the enslaver's consent.
Tipping houses: Taverns.
Title dispute (enslaved): A suit between individuals who claim title to the same enslaved people/property.
Travel passes: A permit that allowed an enslaved person the right to leave and circulate freely beyond the limits of the enslaver's plantation.
Trials (enslaved): The legal proceedings against enslaved people accused of a crime. Used whenever there is mention that such proceedings have occurred and/or the result of such proceedings is provided.
Trover: A legal remedy whereby a plaintiff sues to recover the value of personal chattels wrongfully in the possession of another, but does not seek damages for the taking of the property.
True estate: Property placed under the charge of one person (the trustee) for the benefit of another.
Tutor: One who has been lawfully appointed to care for the person and property of a minor.

V

Vagabond: A person who may not have a permanent residence.
Veterans: Used whenever a person is described as having participated in a war, named or unnamed.
Virtually free (enslaved): Used when enslaved people are described as openly living as if they were free and engaging in the activities of free people, such as managing a household away from the enslaver's residence, negotiating hiring terms for labor, trading to earn a living, and being generally treated and acknowledged by their neighbors as quasi free. Includes self-hire.
Voluntary enslavement: Used whenever a free person of color expresses the desire to be enslaved or to return to slavery. Often used in conjunction with a request to a court of law to be allowed to choose one's owner.

W

Warranty (enslaved): The act by a seller of assuring the buyer that he/she has a valid title to an enslaved person, and that the enslaved person is free from physical, mental and moral defects. Primarily associated with a suit filed by a buyer for breach of contract when a seller allegedly misrepresented the enslaved.
Wench: A term for a woman, often an enslaved woman.
Westward migration: Used whenever there is evidence of people settling west of their current or one-time residence in the United States.
Wheelwright: A person who makes or repairs wheels.
Whipping: A form of punishment used by enslavers or overseers on enslaved people, or inflicted by husbands on their wives. It can also appear in the documents as “sweeping."
White affection (enslaved family): Used whenever a white person expresses the existence of emotional attachment between them and an enslaved person; also used when an enslaved person expresses affection and devotion toward an enslaver and/or their family.
White affection (enslaved): Used whenever a white person expresses the existence of emotional attachment between them and an enslaved person; also used when an enslaved person expresses affection and devotion toward an enslaver and/or their family.
White affection (FPOC): Used whenever a white person expresses the existence of emotional attachment between them and a free person of color; also used when a free person of color expresses affection and devotion toward a white person and/or their family.
White attachment (enslaved): Used whenever a white person expresses the existence of emotional attachment between them and an enslaved person; also used when an enslaved person expresses affection and devotion toward an enslaver and/or their family.
White opinion (enslaved): The expression of an opinion regarding the behavior and/or moral character of enslaved people as a group. It is NOT used to describe the behavior or moral character of an enslaved individual.
White opinion (FPOC): The expression of an opinion regarding the behavior and/or moral character of free people of color as a group. It is NOT used to describe the behavior or moral character of a specific free person of color.
Widow's dower: The share of a husband's estate to which his widow is legally entitled, usually one third. Enslaved people were often a part of the dower.
Women owning property: Used whenever there is evidence that a woman asks for and/or is given control over her property without interference of a third-party, primarily but not limited to her husband.