Abstract
That's all you heard, everywhere we went, or whatever we done, “oh, he's one of those issues.” We couldn't work with white people, we couldn't be in schools with them, we couldn't associate with them, we couldn't eat [with them]. I think they came up with the slang word “free issue.” They had this hatred; they just had this ungodly hatred. They couldn't accept you as a human.At the prodding of Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia General Assembly in 1782 passed legislation that allowed slave owners to manumit their slaves by issuing slaves a copy of their emancipation papers and making them “free issues.” Nevertheless, in Amherst County, Virginia, the meaning of “free issue” evolved to connote something very different than it did at its inception for a small mountain community.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
