UpFront with NGS: Enslaved

Showing posts with label Enslaved. Show all posts

07 February 2017

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks … Petitions to Courts, 1775-1867 – a Finding Aid NOT to be Missed!

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks … Petitions to Courts, 1775-1867 – a Finding Aid NOT to be Missed!

This is a resource that has been around for quite a while and yet I find that many don’t take advantage of it!

Essentially, finding aids can provide you with tremendous data. A detailed finding aid gives you insight into the existence of documents that have relevance to your research. You can then take the next step and access any referenced material.

The Race & Slavery Petitions Project has had detailed finding aids online via Proquest and LexisNexis for quite a while and then subsequently a website (housed at UNC Greensboro) was created to house the information. Interestingly, because of how the information was coded, it is sometimes easier to use the Proquest PDF documents, than the website, depending on what you seek. Additionally, the finding aid entries and the database entries are not identical.

First, a bit of history …

Established in 1991, the Race and Slavery Petitions Project was designed to locate, collect, organize, and publish all extant legislative petitions relevant to slavery, and a selected group of county court petitions from the fifteen former slaveholding states and the District of Columbia, during the period from the American Revolution through the Civil War.

… the Project has collected 17,487 petitions (legislative and county court) representing about half of the counties (606 of 1,127 in 1860) in the fifteen southern states. The following table gives the number of legislative and county court petitions in each state.

Let’s look a bit more into both of these resources …

For the online version, if I search on Wake (as in Wake County NC) having selected North Carolina and the entire time period, only 3 petitions reveal themselves – 1822 (Janet Corn), 1840 (Ephraim Conyers), and 1862 (Sally Scott). Now, I happen to know that Simon Turner had a petition in 1790 and if I search on his name, that petition shows up. This was all using the basic “Search the Petitions.”

Now, there is the “Search By Name” option, meaning the names of slaves, where you can limit our search to a particular county within a state. If I just search on Wake County, I get 10 pages of results! If I check “Show only slave owners” and enter Wake and select North Carolina, then I get just over 1 page of entries, including Simon Turner. So, when searching on slave forenames for a county, the basic “Search By Name” option works best, and when searching for a slave owner, selecting “Show only slave owners” is important.

Now, the online finding aids via Proquest are nice easily searchable PDFs where you can easily search on any term.

· (via LexisNexi) Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks: Series I, Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1777–1867

· (via Proquest) Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks, Series II, Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1775–1867, Part D: North Carolina (1775–1867) and South Carolina (1784–1867)

The above is NOT a complete list of the collection and you can find a list of the books and guides (aka finding aids) here (UNC Greensboro).

In some ways, I like the PDF documents (when available) as you can more quickly see the overall context of the petitions – who, what, when and where, which is an at least two-step process on the website.

Just a reminder that different formats for finding aids/databases each have their strengths as far as usage.

Regardless of which (or both) of these you access, any data found will probably be a gem you’ll want to add to your genealogical collection!

Which entry caught your eye as possibly having relevant to your research?

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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16 January 2017

The National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans in Development

The National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans in Development

You can help! The National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans is in the initial stages of development and is seeking information on burials or burial ground locations of enslaved Americans to be included in a future database. If you have information about such, please submit here.

The project started as The Burial Database Project of Enslaved African Americans (formerly based at Fordham University) and is now the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans - a work of the Periwinkle Initiative.

The Periwinkle Initiative is a public humanities and education initiative dedicated to preserving cultural heritage associated with enslaved Americans. The Initiative’s core project is the National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans – which will be the first and only national repository to document individual burials and burial grounds of enslaved Americans.

The Periwinkle Initiative derives its name from the periwinkle flower that certain scholars believe was the most common wildflower brought to gravesites of enslaved Americans.

You can read about the project and its status via Memory & Landmarks – Report of the Burial Database Project of Enslaved Americans.

What slave burials or cemeteries did you submit to the project?

What online or published compilations of slave burials are you aware of?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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02 March 2015

The Book of Negroes

BET broadcast in February (16^th-18^th) The Book of Negroes. This show raised incredible interest in the basis for this show, the actual Inspection Roll of Negroes, commonly referred to as the Book of Negroes. The BET website has a number of video clips that can be accessed.

If you live in Canada, the show was broadcast on CBC and it appears that you can access the program episodes there (Sorry and those living in the

and elsewhere cannot access these!)

This Boston Glob article, ‘Book of Negroes’ reveals little-known chapter in history will fill you in a bit more on the mini-series.

The NARA website has a blog post about the document that forms the basis of the program.

The Book of Negroes is actually a set of two ledgers that lists the names, ages, and descriptive information of about 3,000 enslaved African Americans, indentured servants, and freedmen that were evacuated from the United States along with British soldiers at the conclusion of the American Revolution. Over the extent of about 200 pages, this record captures what is now invaluable genealogical information such as where a person was held in slavery, their owner’s name, and when and how the person obtained freedom.

If you caught it on BET or CBC, please let us know your reaction and thoughts!

Image source information:

National Archives Identifier: 5890797

Creator(s): Congress of the Confederation. (03/02/1781 - 03/04/1789) (Most Recent)

From: Series : Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, compiled 1774 - 1789

HMS Entry Number(s): UD 2

Record Group 360: Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1765 - 1821

You can access via this link, http://research.archives.gov/description/5890797

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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15 August 2014

Slave and Free States (US) Through History

The title of this post comes from a Wikipedia page by the same name, Slave and free states ...

In United States' history, a slave state was a U.S. state in which slavery was legal at a particular point of time, and a free state was one in which slavery was prohibited at that point of time. The issue of slavery was one of the causes of the American Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States, and the distinction ended.

Obviously, the status of a state was not stagnant. As new territories and then states were created, their identification as a slave or free state initially took place. In most cases, what was a slave territory became a slave state and the same held for free territories.

The most compelling feature of this webpage is the animated map showing the free/slaves status of U.S. states and territories, 1789-1861. I did find it interesting to learn that between 1812 and 1850, there was a concerted effort in the Senate to maintain the balance of free and slave state votes.

If your ancestors were moving westward through time, this gives you some perspective on whether the state they moved to was considered a free or a slave state. This might tell you something about your family – their choice of destination location (territory or state).

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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30 December 2013

Slaves were used as collateral with banks and were sometimes insured; invaluable records when extant

Recently on the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) members list there was a discussion about how slaves had been used as collateral with banks prior to the civil war.

This discussion also included reference to the insuring of slaves by their owners for damage to them or their death.

Though it is painful to be reminded that those who were enslaved were considered property, when you are researching ancestors who were enslaved or the families who owned these slaves, every bit of documentation can be invaluable to learning more about our ancestors.

I was familiar with slaves being insured and that some of the records are available to researchers which document this practice. I was not familiar with slaves being used as collateral until I read this article Chase apologizes over use of slaves as collateral (published in 2005). You can search on slaves + collateral + banks and you will find similar published statements from Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) and other banks as well as other financial institutions (e.g. Lehman Brothers). Though there are some registries of information about insured slaves (see below), I have not identified any databases for slaves used as collateral.

Learn more about how to use the Slave Era Policies (AAIS via Viewpoint Magazine, 2012) to benefit your research.

Some resources for pursuing these records are:

+ Slavery Era Insurance Registry [California] – represents records from many insurance companies and slave owners from the bulk (if not all) of slaveholding states. Gives information on location, owner, policy type and company providing insurance.

+ Slavery Era Insurance Policies Registry [Illinois] – similar scope as the CA registry. I saw that some entries actually give a date of death for an enslaved individual as well as information on occupation, slave holder and location.

+ Report on Slavery Era Insurance [Iowa] – no data registry appears to have been created

+ Slavery Era Insurance Policy Report [Maryland] – no data registry appears to have been created

+ Slave Life Insurance in Virginia and North Carolina (via JSTOR) -- an article that you can access for free if you register for My JSTOR

+ Slave Insurance: lawmaker wants CT companies to share old records

+ [Georgia] Oxendine launches investigation into slave insurance

+ [Virginia] Unknown No Longer (search results slave life insurance policies)

+ [Virginia] "An ACT to increase the powers of the Kanawha slave insurance company"

+ [North Carolina] Third Annual Report of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (1849) (search on slave & a few claims are listed)

+ Digital Library on American Slavery (subject = slave insurance)

+ Shocking List of 10 Companies that Profited from the Slave Trade (Your Black World)

Have you used these registries?

What did you learn?

Are you aware of other such resources? If so, please share!

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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12 December 2013

African American Oral History, guest post by Sharon Leslie Morgan

Illustration from My Daddy is a Cool Dude (Dial Press, 1975)

(CREDIT: Sharon and Vincent Morgan)

How many times have you thought about sitting down with an older relative and having a serious talk about your family history? Then life intervenes and you put the conversation on hold until another day; one that never comes. Your elders pass on and you want to kick yourself in a spasm of coulda, woulda, shoulda.

For African American researchers, elders are the singularly most important repositories of family knowledge. Even when their memories are dimmed or their facts confused, every story they share is enriched with at least a grain of truth. Don’t wait until it is too late.

Here are a few guidelines for conducting a meaningful interview:

· Don’t jump out of the blue and try to dig for deep family secrets.

· Explain clearly what you are doing and that it is an effort to honor your family.

· Arrange a time when there will be few distractions.

· Print out a family tree with photos as a guide to the conversation.

· Have a list of questions in hand but let the conversation flow.

· Tape the conversation if you can. If you can’t, take good notes.

· Ask specific questions but know that most people will not remember exact dates.

· Try to get descriptions of people, places and events that will lead to substantiating documentation.

· Be patient and kind; try to jog memories by leading with what you know.

· Don’t worry if people shut down because memories are too painful.

· Do follow up interviews in order to get more detail.

· Write up and share your story with the people you interview. They will cherish it.

It is unfortunate that there are no remaining survivors of slavery, but that doesn’t mean their memories are gone. In my own case, I had a great grandmother who was enslaved and lived until 1954. I was only three years old when she died, but many of her memories were passed along to my father, uncle and cousins. When I sat down with them, I was transported back into a time that rends my heart. Much of what they told me was eventually verified with further genealogical research in courthouses, libraries and archives throughout the South. And, because of tapings, I can still listen to one uncle’s voice, which elicits a whole new set of feelings.

One example of oral history in action is the WPA Slave Narratives. From 1936-38, the United States government employed people to conduct interviews with surviving African Americans who were enslaved. The interviewers collected more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery in the deep South along with 500 photographs. These narratives, which provide a rich view of slave life, are on file at the National Archives and are available online. In 2003, HBO produced Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives in which actors, including Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance, dramatized the readings. These are available on YouTube.

Sharon Leslie Morgan is the founder of OurBlackAncestry.com, a website dedicated to African American family research. She is co-author of Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (Beacon Press, 2012). This blog expresses the views of the author and should not be attributed to the National Genealogical Society.

Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a sequence of four posts by Sharon on researching African American roots. If you missed the first three posts, you will find them here and here and here.

Upfront with NGS thanks Sharon for her generosity in being a guest blogger.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog.

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

07 February 2017

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks … Petitions to Courts, 1775-1867 – a Finding Aid NOT to be Missed!

16 January 2017

The National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans in Development

02 March 2015

The Book of Negroes

15 August 2014

Slave and Free States (US) Through History

30 December 2013

Slaves were used as collateral with banks and were sometimes insured; invaluable records when extant

12 December 2013

African American Oral History, guest post by Sharon Leslie Morgan

05 December 2013

Recommended Reading/Viewing for African American Research, guest post by Sharon Leslie Morgan