The county Birth Registers altogether range from 1853 to 1885, and record the birth of every individual in the greater Roanoke area during this time frame, whether white, enslaved African American, or free African American. Typically, less information for enslaved people was recorded. Only first names were recorded and place of birth was recorded with much less specificity. Moreover, the birth registers had a category for “Father’s Name or Owner if Enslaved,” meaning in the case of most enslaved people, the enslaver’s information would be given instead of the child’s father. Nonetheless these records are an important source for connecting enslaved children to their mothers, and providing information about their births that is otherwise not found in other records.
In Common Law Book D, it is reported that Isaac Duckwiler put into motion to stop paying taxes on "a negro woman named Hannah, on account of age and infirmity."
This boy's mother was hired out to J. G. Coats. Though the record says that Read "heirs" the mother, that actually means that she was hired by him and gave birth to this boy while she was hired by Coats.
The enslaved people listed in his will were to all remain together on Chapman's plantation. In Chapman's will it was requested that the enslaved people work for a year on the plantation after their enslaver passed away to, "bring the plantation to good standing and then to all be sold."