LibGuides: Researching African American Ancestors: Articles & Online Resources

Articles

Brasfield, Curtis. “‘To My Daughter and the Heirs of Her Body:’ Slave Passages as Illustrated by the Latham-Smithwick Family.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 81 (December 1993): 270-282.

Brasfield, Curtis G. “Tracing Slave Ancestors: Batchelor, Bradley, Branch, and Wright of Desha County Arkansas.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 92 (March 2004): 6-30.

Jupiter, Del E. “From Agustina to Ester: Analyzing a Slave Household for Child-Parent Relationships.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 85 (December 1997): 245-275.

Lennon, Rachal Mills, and Elizabeth Shown Mills. “Mother, Thy Name Is Mystery! Finding the Slave Who Bore Philomene Daurat.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly (September 2000): 201-224.

McBride, Ransom. “Searching for the Past of the North Carolina Black Family in Local, Regional, and Federal Record Resources.” North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 9 (May 1983): 66-77.

Mallory, Rudena Kramer. “An African-American Odyssey through Multiple Surnames: Mortons, Tapps, and Englishes of Kansas and Missouri.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 85 (March 1997): 25-38.

Mills, Gary B. “Notes and Documents: “Can Researchers ‘Prove’ the ‘Unprovable’? A Selective Bibliography of Efforts to Genealogically Document Children of Master-Slave Relationships.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 89 (September 2001): 234-237.

Nordmann, Christopher A. “Jumping over the Broomstick: Resources for Documenting Slave ‘Marriages’.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 91 (September 2003): 196-216.

Peebles, Minnie K. “Black Genealogy.” North Carolina Historical Review 55 (Spring 1978): 164-173.

Randall, Ruth. “An Interracial Suit for Inheritance: Clues to Probable Paternity for a Georgia Freedman, Henry Clay Heard Sherman.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 89 (June 2001): 85-97.

Rapport, Sara. “The Freedmen’s Bureau as a Legal Agent for Black Men and Women in Georgia: 1865-1868.” Georgia Historical Quarterly 73 (Spring 1989): 26-53.

Ruffin, C. Bernard, III. “In Search of the Unappreciated Past: The Ruffin-Cornick Family of Virginia.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 81 (June 1993): 126-138.

Williams, Gary M. “Links before Emancipation: Afro-American Slave Genealogy in Virginia.” Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 32 (February 1994): 3-10.

Online Resources

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former enslaved people.
African American Genealogy: An Online Interactive Guide for Beginners
A guide by Dee Parmer Woodtor, author of Finding a Place Called Home: An African-American Guide to Genealogy and Historical Identity
African American Heritage
Avaible to SLNC library card holders. ProQuest African American Heritage comprises of a mix of resources, records, and tools about African Americans.

Tax Lists and Records from the NC Digital Collections
The Tax Lists and Records digital collection features tax records from the holdings of the State Archives of North Carolina drawn from General Assembly, Treasurer & Comptroller, and Secretary of State records. The bulk of the records are from the Colonial and Revolutionary War eras, but some lists date from as late as 1809. Each set of tax records includes slightly different information. References to “polls” below relate to poll taxes, a tax of a fixed amount levied on adult males, female heads of households, and enslaved people.
Digital Library on American Slavery
The Digital Library on American Slavery compiles various independent online collections focused on race and slavery in the American South, made searchable through a single interface. Although its current focus is sources associated with North Carolina, it also includes information relating to all 15 slave states and Washington, D.C., including detailed personal information about enslaved people, enslavers, and free people of color.
Slave Voyages
Slave Voyages is a digital collaboration of records and information about the Atlantic Slave Trade history. It explores the origins of those forced into slavery in Africa, their grim passage in slave ships, and their trafficking in the Americas.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, including US Colored Troops

African American Newspapers

African American Newspapers, Digital NC

North Carolina African American Newspapers, Chronicling America

Black Historical Newspapers

Military Records

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, including US Colored Troops

Patriots of Color, DAR

Search for African American, African, Native American, and mixed ancestry Revolutionary War patriots by name and state.