Welcome to the Nomini Have Slave Legacy Project homepage. It is our hope to help link the past to the present by chronicling the descendants of the 500+ enslaved Africans that were freed by Robert Carter III from his Nomini Hall estate. This website can be used by those seeking to learn more about this remarkable event, the man behind it and the thousands of descendants of those that were freed.
If you think you may be a descendant of a member of the enslaved community freed by the Nomini Hall estate, feel free to register to gain access to our Member Community. We look forward to helping you in your journey.
Virginia passes a law revoking the prior English law that allowed for slaves that converted to Christianity to become free.
First reported African slaves in the New World.
English settlers in Virginia purchase 20 Africans from a Dutch ship.
The Africans were sold as indentured servants, not slaves. The distinction being an indentured servant may ultimately become free for working for some number of years. It was not long before all Africans arriving were treated as slaves, bought and sold into a lifetime of slavery for them and their descendants.
The Pilgrims settled at Plymouth Massachusetts.
Plymouth, for the most part, had servants and not slaves, meaning that most black servants were given their freedom after turning 25 years old--under similar contractual arrangement as English apprenticeships.
John Carter arrives in America
Virginia colony enacts law to fine those who harbor or assist runaway slaves.
The Virginia law, penalizes people sheltering runaways 20 pounds worth of tobacco for each night of refuge granted. Slaves are branded after a second escape attempt. (African American History, Chronology: A Historical Review Major Events in Black History 1492 thru 1953 )
Corotoman Plantation Built
A Virginia law assumed Africans would remain servants for life.
John Carter dies
Nomini Hall Built
The colonies declare independence from English rule with the adoption of The Declaration of Independence.
Written largely by Thomas Jefferson, the document declares "all men are created equal." Jefferson and many of the signers of the document are slaveholders.
Vermont, an American colony and still not a state, is the first government entity to abolish slavery.
Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery with a laws calling for gradual abolition.
Massachusetts abolishes slavery and grants voting rights to blacks and Native Americans.
At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, delegates debated whether Congress should halt importation of slaves.
South Carolina and Georgia delegates threatened that their states would not join the new Union being planned and won concessions that the slave trade could not be restricted for 20 years.
Congress passes the Three-Fifths Clause stating that each slave is to be counted as three-fifths of a person for calculating representation in Congress.
This act strengthens the power in the House of Representatives for slave states.
The Haitian Revolution begins with a slave uprising in the French West Indian colony of Santo Domingo.
The revolution will eventually lead to the establishment of the black nation of Haiti ten years later.
In August 1971, Robert Carter III starts writing his Deed of Gift
Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Act.
The act allowed for the recovery of runaway slaves and authorized the arrest or seizure of fugitives. The act also created a fine of $500 for any person who aided a fugitive.
France emancipates all slaves in the French colonies.
In the United States, Congress passes legislation prohibiting the manufacture, fitting, equipping, loading or dispatching of any vessel to be employed in the slave trade.
The results of the 1800 census show a total population of 5,084,912 including 887,612 slaves or 17% of the population.
Slaves are virtually non-existent in northern states and as high as 42% in South Carolina and 39% in Virginia.
The United States passes legislation banning slave trade that will take effect the following year.