Unveiling Agency: The Roles of Women in Virginia Manumission

Women's roles in the history of slavery and manumission in the United States are often simplified to the titles of abolitionists or suffragettes despite the wide range of perspectives and influence these women held in the public and economic spheres. Virginia's rich history on manumission, or the voluntary freeing of slaves, provides a diverse perspective on women's influence in the movement as slaveholders, abolitionists, administrators, manumitters, and even enslaved individuals themselves. Women also generally held the responsibility to advocate morality in society from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, so the study of women's role in manumission reveals a more in-depth analysis of the ethics behind race relations in Virginia before federal emancipation. Though more limited in scope compared to men, women who participated in Virginia's slave and manumission system greatly influenced morality, economics, and legal principles in American society.