African American Business Records and Commerce

Slave Trade Registers. The Constitution allowed the outlawing of the importation of slaves to the United States after 1808. Between then and the Civil War the internal slave trade became an important business in the Southern United States. Most states regulated the slave trade. A few kept records of slave traders and their businesses. Look for such business registers at state libraries, archives, historical societies, or county courthouses.

Some registers, and other related data may be found on this larger website about the slave trade throughout Europe and the Western Hemisphere. http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces