Robert Griggs of Lancaster granted by will freedom to all of his slaves, for whose welfare he provided with great liberality. To a mulatto woman owned by him, he bequeathed a heifer and three barrels of Indian corn, and he commanded his executor to allot her a house and a certain area of ground as long as she continued to live with her husband; and she was also to be supplied with one cotton suit every year. Two of his young negroes were to serve for a period of thirty-eight years, and then to be emancipated. All the children in his possession were to remain slaves until they reached their forty-fifth year. Those of his negroes who did not come within these provisions were not to be set free until thirty-nine years had passed since their arrival in the country.[1]
John Carter of Lancaster, one of the largest slaveholders in the Colony, by his will gave freedom to two of his negroes who were married to each other. To each he devised a cow and a calf and three barrels of Indian corn, and instructed his heirs to allow them the use of a convenient house, firewood, timber, and as much land as they could cultivate. He also enjoined that the two young daughters of this couple should receive their liberty when they reached their eighteenth year, and as a provision for them, he gave each one a yearling heifer with its increase, which was to be permitted to run with the cattle of his wife after his death.[2]
A more remarkable instance of generosity on the part of the Virginian slaveholder of the seventeenth century is to be found among the records of Lower Norfolk County. It is not improbable that the beneficiaries in this case were the illegitimate children of the testator. The will of John Nicholls, filed in 1697, disclosed the fact
