Commemoration of Robert Carter III's 1791 Deed of Emancipation and The Lives of Those Set Free

Commemoration of Robert Carter III's 1791 Deed of Manumission of Slaves with the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society and Mary Ball Washington Museum & Library. 

Robert Carter, also known as Robert Carter III and Councillor Carter, was a member of Virginia's Council of State (1758–1776) who, after a religious conversion, emancipated more than five hundred of his enslaved African Americans. Heir to a fortune in land and slaves built by his grandfather, Robert "King" Carter, Carter studied law in London before returning to Virginia in 1751. His contemporaries remarked on his lack of learning and social grace, and he twice ran unsuccessfully for the House of Burgesses, receiving only a handful of votes each time.