African-American Resources for Texas

United States   Tennessee    African Americans

Resources for African-American research fall into two periods: pre- and post-Civil War. A great starting point is Afrigeneas's "African Ancestry in Tennessee."



Pre-Civil War
Records consist of slave importation declarations, plantation records, Texas hiring practices, census records, white family records, church and cemetery records, military records, vital records, and numerous Tennessee court records.

African-American vital records were usually recorded in separate books for many years. Slaves are sometimes mentioned in deeds, wills, tax records, or court order books. A few parish registers list slaves who attended church with their masters.

See the Land and Property, Probate Records, Taxation, Court Records, and Church Records wiki articles for Tennessee.

Occasionally slaves are mentioned in records of the plantations where they served. A collection of plantation records is:


 * TEXAS SLAVE WORKPLACES A list of know Plantations the name and county location. Then a link to lists of names of slaves on those plantations.
 * Texas State Library Archive- Slavery History and search box to further information.
 * Taylor, Marie. Family History Library Bibliography of African American Sources: As of 1994. Salt Lake City, Utah: Family History Library, United States Reference, 2000. (Family History Library book ; [this link allows access to a digital image].) Includes information taken from church, court, slavery, and vital records, as well from the Kenneth Stamp collection of Southern plantation records.

A list of slaves that were impressed to work on the railroads is in:

 * Bamman, Gale Williams. "African-Americans Impressed for Service on the Nashville and North Western Railroad, October 1863." National Genealogical Society Quarterly, September 1992, 204-210. Includes: name, age, height, complexion, name of owner, county, town, and other remarks.

Slaves were gradually emancipated by Texas law beginning in 1865.


 * Texas County Slave records on the 1860 United States Census

An index to records at the Family History Library containing the names of African Americans is:

 * United States Census Slave Schedules
 * Texas Censuses Existing and Lost
 * U.S. Census Slave Schedule, 1860
 * United States Census Slave Schedules
 * African Americans

Post-Civil War
Research consists of consulting the same record types as for non-African Americans. In addition, there are some types of records specific to African-American research, such as emancipation records, apprenticeship bonds for freedmen, and the other types of records.

The Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers may list a depositor’s birth date, birthplace, occupation, residences, death information, parents, children, spouses, siblings, or former masters.

The signature registers for these branches are microfilmed:


 * Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (Washington, D.C.). Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1871–1874. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0816. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1969..

Other types of records were kept by The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, otherwise known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. An Internet site has resources for African-American research in Tennessee and other states:

The Freedmen’s Bureau Online. This site includes lists of freedmen, marriage records, labor records, other types of records, and links to related sites. www.freedmensbureau.com/texas/index.htm

The Freedmen’s Bureau records do not normally include family information. In the FamilySearch Catalog’s Subject Search, look under:

Cemeteries
African Americans were generally buried in race-specific cemeteries.

Census
The first Texas census that included the names and identities of freed slaves was taken in 1870.

Church Records
African Americans typically worshiped apart from white congregations in their own churches.

Military Records
For pensions of African Americans who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, see:


 * black_confederate_soldier_and_african_american_soldiers
 * Researching African American Soldiers of the Civil War
 * Military_history_of_African_Americans_in_the_American_Civil_War

Research Guides
Texas African Americans in collections:


 * Access Genealogy-Texas African American Genealogy
 * African-American Roots in Texas

Maps

 * Texas Slave Population As Reported in the 1860 Census

Histories

 * Black men and women in Texas : a biographical dictionary of notable living Texas men and women
 * Black churches in Texas: a guide to historic congregations
 * Black Dixie : Afro-Texan history and culture in Houston
 * Black leaders : Texans for their times.
 * Black Texans : a history of African Americans in Texas 1528-1995
 * Black Texans, a history of Negroes in Texas, 1528-1971
 * Black Texas women : 150 years of trial and triumph