OK, I confess that blog title is a little sensationalized.
Much of this information becomes well-known to researchers of African-American families over the years.
Family research turns many of us into walking, talking, beacons of history.
It is an endlessly fascinating subject: epic, tragic and but often inspiring.
Points to Remember
Nevertheless, here are a few truths to keep in mind during your research.
1. Slavery was vastly different at different times and in different places. An enslaved person’s life in 1780 in Virginia would not look much like an enslaved person’s life in Georgia in 1850.
The experience of an enslaved person in a city was different than one in a rural community. Different crops had different labor demands (cotton, rice, tobacco, indigo, sugar).
Take the time to learn about the dynamic nature of slavery through Ira Berlin’s masterful book, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America.
2. South America (mainly Brazil) and the Caribbean islands took in most enslaved people from Africa during the African Slave Trade. Of those who came to the North American colonies (roughly 4%), most were here by 1795.
That means many descendants of enslaved people have very long histories in this country. Many people descended from the enslaved have lineages that go back over 200 years.
African Slave Trade map
3. Most enslaved people had surnames that were known among themselves, even though the white planters in most cases did not record those surnames (look at this amazing exception).
The WPA slave interviews, civil war pensions, and freedman’s bank records are sources where you’ll find former slaves mentioning their parent’s entire names.
4. Don’t expect to always find entire families owned by the same person. There will be many instances where the enslaved father is owned by someone other than the owner of his wife and child/children.
Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-4574
To find those spouses, check the neighbors of the enslaver. Many enslaved people found spouses on neighboring farms. Very young children, however, were often allowed to stay with their mothers.
5. Our image of enslaved people farming the plantation is incomplete. Slaves were employed in every conceivable occupation.
They worked in shipyards and wharves, railroads and steamboats, merchant’s shops, coal mines, iron works, gristmills and sawmills.
They worked as maids, seamstresses, tailors, masons, butchers, barbers, and so on. Especially for urban slaves, we need to consider all the ways other than farming they worked.
Enslaved barber, John Hope
6. Understand the enormous impact of the domestic slave trade. Cotton exploded in the early 1800s with the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.
Also, the African Slave Trade closed legally in 1808. This became a perfect storm of disaster for enslaved people.
Traders and owners sold over one million slaves into the deep south and the expanding southwest. About 1/3 of those sold were children.
This had a devastating impact on black families. Note the prevalence of the birthplace of Virginia or Maryland in the 1870 census in the southern states for African-Americans.
7. The enslaved were often bought and sold through slave traders. As they were private businesses, many of the records and receipts of these auction–style purchases do not survive. Slave traders had large networks of contracter-style buyers who roamed through rural areas buying slaves.
Also, slaves were purchased from the estate sales of local slaveowners when they died.
8. There were about a half million free blacks in the country at the end of the Civil War. A little bit more than half of them lived in the South.
9. Local whites interacted with the enslaved population. Criminal court records are replete with people playing cards with slaves and selling them things. Slaves were also plied with liquor by their masters and others. Some enslaved people were allowed to make money, selling vegetables or other things they had.
10. Slavery was a negotiated relationship. Yes, masters had the final and violent upper hand. However, the master’s actions could be altered by a slave’s threatening to run away, refusing to do work, refusing to be sold to someone, and so on.
Examples of these instances are in numerous entries in planter’s diaries and other sources:
“Salley won’t go without her husband so I’ll have to sell him too.”
“Joe if you come back home, you may have your choice of master.”
“I had to whip Bill today because he would not go with me.”
Our ancestors used every tool at their disposal and were not without agency of their own.
Some of the ideas above have been documented by slavery scholar Ira Berlin and his team at the Freedmen and Southern Society Project.
Tell me, what things have you learned during your research about slavery that surprised you?
I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. This blog is where I share family history methods, resources, tips and advice, with an emphasis on slave research, slavery and its aftermath. This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my family’s past. I’ve taken back– reclaimed– some of that lost memory, especially that of my enslaved ancestors. I hope you’ll sign up to receive my posts—if you do, you’ll get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! And please do share posts that interest you.
Greetings Robyn,
So informative…I have a brief story I’d like to share – about slavery that surprised me. This comes directly from a family oral history related to me via my late maternal Aunt Sadie BENNETT Shrumpert, who lived to be 101 years old. It concerned “Granny”. Granny was Aunt Sadie’s great grandmother and my 4th great grandmother. The story goes that Granny “was called an African toughie” or “black toughie”. Aunt Sadie said Granny acquired this appellation because the “white slave owner would try to rape her” but she would aggressively fight him back, then runaway. She was eventually captured, followed by a brutal flogging. What was mind boggling about the story is that, accordingly to Aunt Sadie, this event was repetitive up to the end of slavery. It is said that she (Granny) would often show her daughter (Lucinda Davis, Aunt Sadie’s mother) the “tree on her back and boast how she NEVER submitted to the white man”! The “tree”, as you’ve probably surmised, was the scars from the floggings. But what gets me that is that Aunt Sadie alluded that Granny considered her scars as a mark of great pride; and why wasn’t she ever sold or killed. Surprisingly, Aunt Sadie would always end the story with: “But they never killed her”… I don’t have any “scientific” proof; but I’m of the opinion that “Granny” was probably a root woman…
Dear Robin…thanks so much for this enlightening article! I am a 60 year old educated white man raised in Mississippi. I spent the 1st 9 years of my life in Germany, as my dad was in the US Air Force. Humans, as children, are susceptible to being “conditioned” by their parents; I thank God my dad was not a prejudiced man in spite of his being raised in southern Georgia during the 1920’s – 30’s. Although it is NEVER right for one human being to ever own another, it does give me some sense of consolation knowing that many (I hope) slaves, based on your writing, had some sort of freedom (if you can call it that) and peace in their lives. God bless you and continue to spread the truth, good or bad.
Robyn,
This is a great post. I’ve learned many of the things you have pointed out.
Even though as best as I can determine to date that my ancestors were slaves, the biggest realization was that my ancestors were more than likely here when the US became a nation, making us just as American as anybody else.
Other thing I’ve learned is that most slaves were probably on small farms as opposed to huge plantations.
I always love your posts, but this is the best one I have read in quite some time. Merry Christmas!
These are discoveries I have made also, through my journey. I know, it’s funny, the main books I read now ARE biographies and informational history texts, most of which have to do with Black history. But I love it!!
[…] the Blogs A good post was written by Robyn Smith of Reclaiming Kin family history blog. She emphasizes a number of facts about slavery that we as researchers need to […]
As always, you give excellent information, suggestions and/or advice. Your commitment, tenacity, and devotion to researching your family is to be commended, and serves as an inspiration to all of your fellow Af-Amer, researchers. Finally, the quality of your work meets or rather greatly exceeds that of all but a very few professional genealogists. My best wishes to you for your continued success in your endeavors.
I, too, am surprised about what I’m learning from genealogy. A friend of mine once said that all Black people come from Mississippi. Well, slaves outnumbered free whites by more than 100,000 persons in 1865 Mississippi. The descendants of this large slave population migrated across the nation and today many find their family history research touching Mississippi.
interesting website. family history, especially when being black, is intriguing. the most surprising thing i have learned was when i discovered the “natural laws” & the treaty that declares blacks “sovereign” – accoring to the constitution; back in the 1700’s. It surprised me that my ancestors where not slaves from africa, but where indegenious to south american land.