Robinson

Though James Robinson was free, his wife Sarah Gaskins was enslaved. Because the status of your freedom was connected to that of your mother under Virginia's black codes, their eight children were also enslaved. Their owner was a local farmer named John Lee.

This document is a hiring form between James and Lee from 1846. James is hiring out the use of his son Tasco for $30. In his attempts to keep his family safe and together James would either hire his family out himself or arrange for them to work with local white farmers who he knew.