Excerpt from The Free Negro in Virginia: 1619-1865 The history of the free negro' in the slave States forms one of the most interesting chapters in the history of slavery in this country. A number of valuable monographs dealing with the history of the negro or with the institution of slavery in; the various States have been published during recent years, but no one of them, so far as the author is aware, has been devoted exclusively to the status or history of the antebellum free negro in a particular Commonwealth of-the Uni-ou. Such studies are needed, and it is hoped that the present monograph will, as far as Virginia is concerned, supply this need. Moreover, as a study of the free negro in the State in which the African first made his appearance in America, it should' supply some of the facts upon which the history of the negro race in the United States must be based. Upon the constitutional side it is hoped that the study will be an aid to a correct conception of the purposes sought to be realized by the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.