Resources for Researching Slavery and Freedom

Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-4574

Most Americans did not learn much (if anything) about slavery during our public school education. This page provides links to some of my favorite databases, articles, and websites about slavery and emancipation.

Selected Databases and Websites:

Slave Narratives from the Library of Congress: (over 2,000 interviews were conducted with the formerly enslaved in the 1930s)

Digital Library on Slavery (includes some NC slave deeds and slave notices, race and slavery petitions)

Slave Voyages (database of the slave trade)

Freedmen’s Bureau Search Portal from the Smithsonian

Last Seen (newspaper ads from the formerly enslaved looking for sold off relatives after emancipation)

Documenting the American South (see especially the North American Slave Narratives and The Church in the Southern Black Community)

Duke University: American Slavery Documents

Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation

Slaves and the Courts Library of Congress

Gilder Lehman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (Yale)

Free African Americans in Colonial Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware

African American Genealogical Research Articles:

A Note on the Pitfalls of Black Genealogy

The Effect of Slavery and Emancipation on African_American_Families

The Documentation of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Federal Records

Federal Records that Help Identify Former Enslaved People and Slaveholders

Slavery and the Family Tree

Family History, Slavery, and Knowledge of Black History

How to Trace African American Ancestry

Finding Enslaved Ancestors Using DNA

Researchers Illuminate Centuries of Identity Lost Because of Slavery

Selected State & Local Resources:

New York Public Library, Slave Being Sold

South Carolina

Lowcountry Africana (includes Georgia and Florida)

African American Genealogical Research at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History

Tennessee

Tennessee Guide to African American Genealogy Related Documents Prior to 1865

Landscape of Liberation: African American Geography of Tennessee (Interactive Map)

Maryland

Legacy of Slavery in Maryland Database

Maryland-Guide to Researching African American Families

Maryland-Guide to History of Slavery in Maryland

Maryland-American American Resources for Research

Maryland-Archives of Maryland Slavery Commission

North Carolina

North Carolina-Researching African American Ancestors

Preliminary Guide to Records Relating to Africans Americans at the North Carolina State Archives

Virginia

Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative

African American Research at the Library of Virginia

Washington DC

Georgetown Slavery Archive

Slavery and Emancipation in the Nation’s Capital

The Complexities of Slavery in the Nation’s Capital

Georgia

Primary Sources that Document Enslaved and Free Persons of Color in Georgia

Slavery in Antebellum Georgia

African American Resources at the Georgia Archives

African American Genealogy Resource Guide

New England States

The Northeast Slavery Records Index

Slavery in the North

Kentucky

Researching African American Slavery in Kentucky

Researching African Americans at the Kentucky Archives

Uncovering the Lives of Kentucky’s Enslaved People

Selected Records Useful in Researching the Enslaved and Freedmen:

Intro to Correspondence of the Freedmens Bureau

Records of Probate for Slaveholding Estate

Typical Actions in Probate of a Slaveholder

Coroners’ Inquests

Fieri Facias

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I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. I have been a researcher, writer, and lecturer for over twenty-five years.

Reclaiming Kin teaches the skills, tools, and resources behind sound family history research, including the complexities of researching American slavery, for genealogists at every level.

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Fruit of the Earth: Using Deed Records to Uncover Your Ancestors
20 June 2026, 1-3:30 PM, EST
Join me as I present one of my most popular webinars! Deed records are one of genealogy’s most trusted and voluminous record sets. But the legal jargon can be confusing, and besides, what if your ancestor didn’t own land? Come and learn how to use deed records in new and exciting ways and unlock brick walls about your family and the communities in which they lived. This lecture also includes content about researching potential slaveholders in deeds and African-Americans after emancipation.

The first hour will be an introduction to using deeds. After a short break, in the second hour Robyn will demonstrate how to use FamilySearch to find and research deeds. Attendees will also receive a link to re-watch this webinar for three months in about a week. This event is $10. Zoom only utilizes Paypal,which will let you use a credit card). If you want to pay by Zelle or check, please email me at msualumni33 at gmail dot com, with "REGISTRATION" in caps in the subject line.
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[PAST] Workshop: Using AI to Write Your Family Story,
July 11th, July 18th, July 25th, 6 p.m. EST
Do you want to preserve all the research you’ve done for future generations, but aren’t sure how to begin writing? If so, this workshop is for you. I will show you a way to get past all that by using the power of AI to give us a starting point. This workshop will require hands-on, real-time engagement from you. At the conclusion of this workshop, you will have an article about your family. Please read carefully the requirements for this workshop before registering. The workshop is $75. Zoom only uses Paypal registration and it will also let you use a credit card. If you want to pay by Zelle or check, please email me at msualumni33 at gmail dot com, with "REGISTRATION" in caps in the subject line.

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[PAST] Proving Identity, Not Matching Names, 7 September 2024, 2-3:45 pm EST: Genealogical sources are full of people living in the same place with the same name as our ancestor. How can we distinguish our ancestor among others of the same name? We can’t rely on just names; we’ve got to prove identity. Join me as I discuss strategies and present guidelines for ensuring that we've got the right person.

As always, attendees will receive a link to re-watch this webinar for three months; it takes me about a week to get that link out. This event is $15. Zoom only utilizes Paypal and will let you use a credit card, or you can Cash App me at $msualumni33, but please email me with CASH APP in the Subject line so I can know who to add. Please register early; several people couldn't get in when trying to register on the day of the webinar.
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[PAST] Beyond the Search Box: Finding Family Relationships, 3 August 2024, 2-3:45 pm EST: While online databases have been a boon to genealogists over the past decades, they can obscure the analysis all researchers must do. In this session, Robyn illustrates how turning our focus away from the computer and focusing on the sources and evidence we have can lead to uncovering family relationships.

Attendees will receive a link to re-watch this webinar for three months in about a week. This event is $15. Zoom only utilizes Paypal, but if you would like to send me a check please email me using the contact form below. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND SAVE YOUR SEAT!

I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. The Genealogy Source Table Collection includes 10 blank, editable source tables for death certificates, city directories, obituaries and funeral programs. See more details in the flier here and they are available for purchase for $10 .

I also have a Slavery and Freedom Collection available for $20. There are 15 tables, blank and editable for you to populate, as well as samples of using each. For more details, see the flier here, and you can purchase them here.

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"While African-American genealogical research in many ways is like all genealogical research, the era of slavery makes the task especially challenging. The difficulties include using records that provide no surnames, the constant sale and breakup of families, and the lack of identification of fathers.

For descendants, I would add the substantial emotional impact of seeing an ancestor's name attached to a dollar value, or being valued in a list with silverware and cattle. Slavery's reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African-American genealogy is recovering the stories of those caught in its grasp who could not in their own time leave their own witness."

-Robyn

Maryland Genealogical Society Holiday Luncheon, December 2017-2

"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past."
-William Faulkner

"Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one"
- Jane Howard

"Friends are God's apologies for relations."
-Hugh Kingsmill

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"
-Elbert Hubbard

"Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts."
-Unknown

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance!"
-Unknown

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)"
-George Burns

"Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. No superior alternative has yet been found."
-Winston Churchill

"The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never ever introduce yourself to had life not done it for you."
-Kendall Hailey

"If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people."
-Thich Nhat Hanh