Q
Hi AW! I've got the name of the slave owner. How do I find the names of the slaves he owned, which I think includes a line of my ancestry?
Hannah
A
I'm impressed Hannah; I'm going to believe you without knowing how you found the name of the slave owner, and for the purposes of this answer, for the sake of other readers of Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot, I'm going to go over some aspects of African-American genealogy research.
First, it's American research. So, do your UNITED STATES CENSUS work as far back as you can. Something I used to do all the time with microfilm, and I think we should still do in databases, is to examine the pages of the census for the surrounding area when we find a family group - just to see if there are others local who might have the same surname or be related so forward and back, please!
The first United States census in which the freed slaves are named is 1870, which was after the Civil War. Until then people other than the head of household were counted as statistics and names were not given. But if you can find the family on the 1870 you probably already have the names of some people who were in slavery in the location. (If by chance any of your ancestors fell into the category of Free, you may be able to go back by comparing the people on the 1870 with those statistics re living in the same area and same head of household as well.)
Do the census work for the SLAVE OWNER if you find one - and any legal documents pertaining to them and their family regarding inheritance.
A caution when using databases. Often I skip the question of race or color as I think this has been subjective. I will note it, but it may not be the same answer for the same person as the decades go by. (B - Black. N - Negro. M - Mulatto (mixed race). W - White.)
Check the FREEDMAN BANK RECORDS just in case. I personally have not had a whole lot of luck with these but I have once or twice had a breakthrough - because the persons had unusual and consistent names.
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My photo of part of the exhibit which is a display in a hallway.
OK so... IF YOU HAVE THE NAME OF THE SLAVE OWNER and the NAME or/and LOCATION of the farm, plantation, or place of residence for the slaves, CHECK THE LOCAL HISTORY to see if there is any mentions. Is there a biography of the slave owner, for instance? A biography might lead you to more information about the slave owner and who his or her relatives are: Wills or Bills of Sale may have more information.
Check to see if there are any genealogy groups local to that area, especially with African-American focus. (At the same time be careful to discern what "oral history" and archival documents or support documents there are.)
Check to see if there are any existing local newspapers and how far back they go, likely news that may apply will mention the slave owner.
But to be more focused on your question THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES brags that it has the largest collection relating to the African- American experience.
Also check SLAVE NARRATIVES. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/
Excerpt: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.
I'm going to this link https://guides.loc.gov/manuscripts-illustrated-guide/african-american-history
Excerpt: The Manuscript Division has one of the nation's most valuable collections for the study of African-American history and culture. The Library's holdings include information about slavery and the slave trade as well as other aspects of plantation life. Papers of slaveholders provide one view of slavery, and slave narratives give another. Diaries and journals further illuminate lives spent in slavery and freedom. The manuscripts of black and white abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Salmon P. Chase describe the efforts of those who attempted to alleviate the plight of slaves, and the records of the American Colonization Society detail the saga of African Americans who left the United States and established the West African nation of Liberia in the mid- nineteenth century. Papers relating to black participation and victimization in the Civil War abound, and African-American history during Reconstruction is reflected in collections pertaining to newly elected black officials such as John Mercer Langston, Blanche K. Bruce, Hiram R. Revels, and Francis L. Cardozo.
https://www.loc.gov/item/mm82057687/#:~:text=Correspondence%2C%20speeches%2C%20writings%2C%20court,during%20the%20American%20Civil%20War. This is the link to the Black History Collection. (I'm aware that Black is a preferred term these days, but for the purposes of our research we search for a collection title as it was when it came into being and we will encounter other terms we may not like as well.)
- Correspondence, speeches, writings, court records, slave records, slave deeds, emancipation and manumission papers, birth and marriage records, wills, family and genealogical papers, military records, financial records, ships' papers, broadsides, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and other papers pertaining to African Americans from the colonial period through the early twenty-first century. Subjects include the slave trade, slaves, medical care of slaves, fugitive slaves, abolition, emancipation, manumission, freed persons, civil rights, political rights and suffrage, and military service, in particular, during the American Civil War.
THERE ARE OTHER COLLECTIONS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES THAT MAY BE OF VALUE, but again, don't forget the more local resources, and that includes the small libraries in small towns and historical society collections!
