UpFront with NGS: Slaves

Showing posts with label Slaves. Show all posts

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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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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14 March 2014

Upfront Mini Bytes – Row Houses, Lawyers in London, TV News, Norwegian Ancestors, Youth Bibliography, Slavery Map, and Irish Research

Welcome to our newest edition of our bi-weekly feature Upfront Mini Bytes. In Upfront Mini Bytes we provide eight tasty bits of genealogy news that will help give you a deeper byte into your family history research. Each item is short and sweet. We encourage you to check out the links to articles, blog posts, resources, and anything genealogical!

We hope you found the past editions helpful. Use your favorite search engine with “Upfront with NGS” “Mini Bytes” or use this Google search link.

Do you have questions, suggestions for future posts, or comments? Please post a comment or send an e-mail to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org.

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A bit of whimsy and history all rolled into one package. Enjoy The Lonely Row Houses of Baltimore.

Did an ancestor practice law in London between 1505 and 1845? If so, he might have been a member of what is now called the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Some of its records, Calendars of Inner Temple Records, 1505-1845 are available online.

Did you know that cartographers used to think that California was an Island? This reminds us to be cautious about what we take as “fact” as we do our research. Check out this neat collection of these maps.

It’s not always archival institutions that had the forethought to preserve history. Sometimes it’s individuals like you and me who amass an archive of material that then gets a long-term home in an archive. Read about such a situation in The Incredible Story of Marion Stokes, Who Single-Handedly Taped 35 Years of TV News. From 1977 to 2012, she recorded 140,000 VHS tapes worth of history that the Internet Archives plans to make public and searchable. On a related note, read here about the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Have Norwegian ancestors? Check out the online presence of The National Archives of Norway. You can access digitized parish registers, probate records, court records, and much more!

We often discuss getting more youth involved in the fascinating discovery of one’s roots! A Bibliography for Young People and Families created by New England Historic Genealogical Society (aka American Ancestors) might help get the ball rolling.

To better appreciate the extent of Slavery in the U.S. at the time of the Civil War (based on the 1860 census), check out A Map of American Slavery.

The Irish Genealogical Research Society’s annual journal, The Irish Genealogist, has been published since 1937. It has included information from newspapers, parish registers, family Bibles, genealogies, voters lists, pedigrees, membership rolls, deeds, marriage settlements, census substitutes, land and tenure surveys, marriage license bonds, courts records, and wills. Over 250,000 names can be searched

via a new database.

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18 February 2014

Quilts served as "road map" to freedom for slaves -- Fact or Fiction?

source: Wikimedia Commons

Though one can get plenty of news available online, I still get a “print” newspaper which I can read while I eat my breakfast and have a cup of coffee. I find I just “see” more of the newspapers content and it’s always fun when an article catches my eye.

This Sunday, the article “Artist: Quilts Guided Slaves” grabbed my attention. What a fascinating read. And, it’s something that could make sense ...

Because many slaves couldn’t read, their supporters came up with a “road map” of patterns they could rely on while traveling the Underground Railroad ...

This idea is similarly discussed in Did Quilts Hold Codes to the Underground Railroad? (National Geographic News)

Though, there are many scholars who dispute the idea.

You can learn a lot about the timeline of this topic in Betsy Ross redux: the Underground Railroad "Quilt Code".

Ignoring the controversy, an interesting element is that it reminded me of the "Underground Railroad" and the challenges faced by those enslaved and seeking freedom and those who helped them. As we celebrate Black History Month, isn't being reminded of such history what this month is all about?

What do you think? Is the idea of a quilt code plausible? Have you ever heard rumors of such?

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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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26 March 2013

Black People DID Own Slaves? Yes ....

As with any bit of history, there is complexity.

People like to think that only “white” plantation owners owned and used enslaved labor. People like to think that it was only “white males” who fathered children with enslaved female negroes. The list could go on.

The article, Did Black People Own Slaves? by Henry Louis Gates Jr (at The Root) reminds us that they did. This challenges us to be open-minded when looking into the records of who owned slaves and why – both in terms of who, where, when, why, etc. The history is complex and the repercussions have been long-lasting.

Some other articles on the same topic are:

Were your ancestors enslaved by a black owner?

Have you been challenged to determine the “race” of who owned your ancestors?

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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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