Virginia Requires Freed People to Leave the State

Virginia's 1806 law required any enslaved person manumitted after that date to leave the state within one year or face re-enslavement. The law was a direct response to Gabriel's Rebellion and the growth of Virginia's free Black population. It forced freedom-seekers to choose between liberty in exile or enslavement at home, and dramatically slowed manumissions in the state. Many enslaved people chose to remain enslaved rather than abandon family.