On February 14, Ancestry.com announced the addition of several new or updated collections of records of interest to African American genealogists:
- Mississippi, Wilkinson County Newspaper Slave Ads, 1823-1849: What’s a slave ad? The ones found in this collection include notices placed by owners who either had a slave who ran away or who were selling slaves, or by a sheriff who'd found a runaway slave. However, you'll also find letters to the editor, editorials, articles, copies of speeches and more that pertain to individual slaves or slavery itself in this collection.
- Savannah, Georgia, Slave Manifests, 1811-1860: Slavery was banned when the colony of Georgia was founded in the 1730s – along with Roman Catholics, liquor and lawyers. But Savannah needed slaves for its rice and cotton fields, so the institution was legalized in 1750. The records in this collection were generated to comply with the 1807 act that, among other things, required captains of ships over 40 tons to create manifests listing their slave cargo. You'll find the slave's name, physical description, ship's name and captain, dates of transportation, and a slave owner's name and residence.
- New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860: Solomon Northup was born a free person of color in New York in 1808. In 1841, the promise of a job lured him to Washington, D.C., where he was kidnapped, put on a boat to New Orleans, and sold into slavery. He was liberated in 1853, and the book he wrote chronicling his experiences, 12 Years a Slave, became both a popular seller and an important historical document. Now, with a new index generously supplied by World Archives Project volunteers, you can quickly find Solomon in New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, as long as you know the alias the slave traders gave him: Platt Hamilton.
- Adams County, Mississippi, Slave Certificates: From 1858 through 1861, Mississippi state law said that any slave brought in from out of state to be sold needed a sworn certificate stating he/she was not guilty of a crime and that the seller had obtained the slave lawfully. Those certificates today create a trail of slave, owner, witnesses and sometimes even detailed information on the slave.
- U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938: Read firsthand accounts of life as a slave in these written interviews collected from more than 2,000 former slaves by the Federal Writers' Project – nearly 75 years ago.
- U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865: UPDATE Thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 175,000 African American soldiers were eventually able to fight in the Civil War. This most-recent update to U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records tacks 20 more infantry units onto our existing collection.
- U.S. Freedmen's Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1865-1878: UPDATE In 1865, the Freedman's Bureau was established to handle all matters relating to refugees, freedmen and lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. After the Bureau closed in 1872, the Freedmen's Branch was created. In this update, we're adding 60,000 records from the Branch's field offices to our existing collection. Included are letters sent and received, indexes to bounty records, confidential lists and more.
- Washington, D.C., Emancipation Records 1851-1863and Washington, D.C., Slave Owner Petitions, 1862-1863: Slavery was abolished in D.C. via an act passed April 12, 1862. Owners then had until July 15 to file a schedule of their slaves and receive up to $300 for each (under certain circumstances, a slave could file the schedule himself). Slave Emancipation Records include emancipation papers, manumission papers and case files related to fugitive slaves. Slave Owners Petitions hold petitions filed for compensation, where you'll find names of slaveholders, slaves, descriptions and claimed monetary value.
To access these collections and all others relating to African Americans, including a special federal census search engine that can limit results to African Americans, visit http://landing.ancestry.com/africanamericanhistory.
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