African American Slavery and Bondage

Finding an African American ancestor who was enslaved almost always means finding the records of the family that owned him or her.

Study the life and records of the slave owner and his family. Your ancestor’s life was inseparably connected with the slave owner. Your ancestor may be listed in records of the slave owner’s property:


 * Tax records. These list slaves and their monetary value.
 * Land and property records. Search for information about deeds, sales, mortgages, or rental transactions of slaves.
 * Probate, estate, and chancery court records These show the distribution of slaves at the death of a slave owner.
 * Plantation records. Account log books give the names of slaves, family relationships, and their assigned tasks. Some records give the slaves’ birth and death dates. They also record when a slave was bought, from whom, and for how much. Most plantation records would be in the hands of the plantation family descendants, or at county or state archives.


 * A few plantation records are listed in Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1966). These records are a microfilm collection of manuscripts held in several major research libraries throughout the South.
 * Parts of the papers from some plantations are scattered by their donation to many libraries, and this collection helps gather them in a single set. It offers access to selected material from Maryland to Texas in one source.

See Family History Library Bibliography of African American Sources for the films and guide books for this collection. Whenever possible, these records are listed under the county or state where the plantation was located. They are then listed alphabetically by the name of the slave owner.