Linking the Past to the Present

The Nomini Hall Slave Legacy Project has spent nearly two decades documenting the descendants of the 500+ enslaved Africans freed by Robert Carter III's 1791 Deed of Gift. Filed in the Northumberland County courthouse, this document set in motion the gradual liberation of men, women, and children across 18 plantations in five Virginia counties. 

This was not a footnote in history. It was the single largest act of private emancipation before the Civil War, and yet, most Americans have never heard of it.

We are changing that.

This project links the past to the present by identifying, documenting, and connecting the thousands of living descendants of these freed people. Through genealogical research, DNA analysis, historical documentation, and community building, we ensure that these names, these families, and this extraordinary act of liberation are never forgotten.