Pamunkey: "the claims of the Indians no longer exist" (King William County, VA, 1842–1843)

SUMMARYPamunkey: "the claims of the Indians no longer exist" (King William County, VA, 1842–1843) [Connections: Virginia & Eastern Shore, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDA 20 Jan. 1843 petition from "freeholders and other white inhabitants" asked the General Assembly to sell the Pamunkey reservation. It said "the claims of the Indians no longer exist" because residents had intermarried with free Black people and with people who had escaped slavery. It also called nearby Black residents "generally idle and vagrant." The Pamunkey counter-petition (dated 26 Nov. 1842), signed by Tazewell H. Langston, James Langston and Joseph Arnold, answered: "there are many here that are more than half-blooded Indian" and "we have not been consulted." The Committee for Courts of Justice rejected the sale in March 1843

PATTERNSame tactic as at Gingaskin 60 years earlier: claim the residents are "free Negroes" and use that to end the reservation. The Pamunkey answered in writing and kept their land

LENS (WW9)The Gingaskin lost their reservation and the Pamunkey kept theirs, and in both cases the attack was to call them "free Negroes."

OPENWhether a Gingaskin counter-petition exists (none was found this session)

SOURCELibrary of Virginia DBVA, Freeholders Petition 1843; Encyclopedia Virginia, Pamunkey Counter Petition. Primary: Legislative Petitions Digital Collection, King William County, LVA.