Before my post, I want to acknowledge the passing of my dear and treasured friend, Andrea Ramsey on October 8, 2019. Its been a very sad summer for me, with her illness. She was an outstanding genealogist, specializing in Caribbean research, and a proud member of the Jean Sampson Scott AAHGS chapter in New York […]
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Category: Slaveowner Research
Slave Mortgages
Human collateral provided much of the capital for slaveholders to purchase more land and more slaves. This, in addition to enslaved people’s free labor, created much of the 18th century wealth that US growth and development depended upon. Edward Baptist elucidates how slavery drove capitalism in his book, The Half has Never Been Told: Slavery […]
How Many Slaveowners Were in the South?
This is the third in a series of posts (see previous posts here and here) where I am asking us all to consider reevaluating some of our beliefs surrounding slavery. People everywhere like to make the point that: “Only one in three southerners held slaves.” Why do people say that? It’s often a part of […]
Slaves in Pre-Marital Agreements
In our search for ancestors who were once slaves, let’s not forget that they were often named in pre-marital agreements. This is one record that is often neglected in our research. I have mentioned before the need to research the slaveholder’s wife, since we know that this was often how men gained ownership of slaves. […]
Slaves are in the FAN Club, Too
Genealogists often use cluster research as a research strategy. As a shorthand, you will often hear people call this idea finding your ancestor’s “FAN” club: their friends, associates and neighbors. Expanding your focus to a group of people as opposed to one couple or one nuclear family dramatically increases your chances of solving tough research problems. […]
More Suggestions for White Slaveholder D...
I was encouraged that many of you read my last blog post, and shared your feelings about being the descendants of slaveholders. That post had over 7,000 views! (Update, 12/2108: Over 25,000 views of that post). At a time when so much ugliness is on display daily in our country, it heartens me that there […]
Suggestions For the White Descendants of...
I have been pondering this topic for awhile and received a recommendation to discuss it on my blog. It’s an important one I think, but one fraught with all the ugliness that discussions of slavery and race entail. What follows are informed thoughts I’d like to offer garnered from the almost 20 years that I have been researching […]
Freedmen’s Bureau Record Uncovers Likely
I made a big discovery recently courtesy of Familysearch’s newly indexed Freedmen’s Bureau Labor Contracts. A Little Background Several years ago, I used cluster research to trace my Tennessee ancestor Mike Fendricks back to his Alabama roots. At a standstill with Mike, I traced the roots of Dee Suggs, a man Mike lived with in […]
Thomas S. Sudler Account Book
I’ve written before about the information that can be found in what I call Community Papers. These Papers include account books, diaries, ledgers, loose papers, family records, etc. These are the papers of (usually) prominent men and families. They might be large slaveholders, doctors, merchants or lawyers. Almost every library and archives has these kinds of […]
There Were No “Good” Slaveowners
I’m convinced that slave research and the research of slaveowners is some of the toughest genealogy research the field will ever see. This is a long post, but I hope you’ll read it all. I also recommend reading “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” by Edward Baptist. The book […]