Author: Jane Webb

In this petition to the Northampton County Court, dated February 10, 1725, Thomas Savage argues that two of Jane Webb’s children, who were born after the end of her indentured service to Savage, should be indentured to him. In 1703, Webb and Savage made a contract in which she indentured herself to Savage for seven years and indentured any children born through 1711 until the age of eighteen in return for her enslaved husband’s freedom. Savage flouted the contract when he refused to free Webb’s husband and five oldest children in 1711. The children discussed in this petition are Webb’s two youngest children who were born outside the bounds of the contract, when Webb was a free woman; Lisha was born in 1716 and Abimelech was born in 1720. In this petition, Savage argues that because Webb has no income to support her children, they should be bound to him. On July 12, 1726, the justices decided that Lisha and Abimilech were bound to Savage. The strikethrough text reflects the part of the petition that was marked out.

In this petition to the Northampton County Court on August 16, 1722, Jane Webb files a freedom suit for her three oldest children, who were in bondage to Thomas Savage. In 1703, Webb and Savage made a contract in which she indentured herself to Savage for seven years and indentured any children born through 1711 until the age of eighteen in return for her enslaved husband’s freedom. But when the time came, Savage refused to free Webb’s husband and five oldest children. Freedom suits are lawsuits initiated by enslaved people who were seeking to gain their freedom. Jane Webb makes this suit based on Savage flouting the contract and the fact that the children were born out of a legally recognized marriage.  Eventually, the court dismissed the petition.

In this written account of Northampton County Court proceedings on July 13, 1726, the justices order Jane Webb, a free, mixed-race woman, be taken into custody for saying things that the court decided had breached the peace. They made this decision based on Colonel George Harmanson’s claim that Webb had said “if all Virginia negros had as good a heart as she had, they would all be free.” The justices ordered Webb to be stripped to the waist and given ten lashes “well laid on” at the whipping post outside of the courthouse. This court case came in the midst of Webb’s extensive efforts to free her husband and children from their servitude to Thomas Savage, who had extended the children’s indenture beyond the terms of the contract and refused to free her husband from slavery. To understand why Harmanson gave this information to the court, it’s important to know that he was Thomas Savage’s brother-in-law.