Richmond, Virginia, was a social minefield for many free coloreds and slaves before the American Civil War. There they spent a large portion of their productive energies negotiating the obstacles of Virginia's slave society. Most black Richmonders were therefore unable to exercise the option of emigrating to Liberia. The way black Richmonders interacted with the Virginia slave system had an enormous impact on this. As Virginia legislators began imposing stricter limits on manumission in the early nineteenth century, the number of black families consisting of slave and free colored members increased. These stranded families undermined American Colonization Society (ACS) efforts to enlarge the size of the settler population in Liberia. Fundamentally, Richmond free colored members of stranded families lived in a social and legal context where white political authorities altered the actual meaning of manumission and emigration from liberation to separation. In response to this change, free coloreds filed petitions with the Virginia legislature to redefine the meaning of manumission, making it a form of liberation, which would allow them to preserve the integrity of their families. As long as members of their families remained enslaved, these free coloreds continued to reject emigration as a practical liberation solution. Even fewer options for liberation existed for Richmond free coloreds who found themselves demoted in status by the Virginian legal system. For example, it was not unusual for poorer free coloreds to be drawn into an unofficial system of indentured servitude in instances where they could not afford to pay jail charges.