In 1857, slavery was nearing its end, although no one in the South realized that yet. However, in Roanoke County, a widow named Sarah Betts knew that her time on earth was drawing to a close. She sat down to write out her will.
She seems to have had a soft spot for one particular slave she owned because her will contained this provision: “It is my desire that my slave Claiborne Scott and his wife Ann and their infant child Sally Betts shall have an opportunity to purchase themselves, that they may be free,” Sarah Betts wrote.
It’s unclear why the child had the surname of her enslavers, but that’s not the unusual part. The conditional nature of this promise of freedom was…