African American Resources for Virginia: Difference between revisions

== Strategies  ==

<br>This Wiki page describes research strategies, and major sources of information about African American families from [[Virginia]]. As you read this Wiki page, also study the [[African American Research]] Wiki pages, which will help you understand more strategies, and the contents and uses of other African American genealogical records.  

The first slaves were imported into Virginia in 1619. Slaves were emancipated in 1865. The Official Tourism Website of the Commonwealth of Virginia has prepared a nice history of [http://www.virginia.org/africanamericansinvirginia/ African-Americans in Virginia].<br>  

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| bgcolor="#cc99ff" colspan="4" | <center>'''Number of Slaves in Virginia'''<ref name="no">Includes modern-day West Virginia and part of the District of Columbia. ''Ninth Census of the United States: Statistics of Population, Tables I to VIII Inclusive'' (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872), 70, 72. Digital version at [http://archive.org/stream/ninthcensusunit00offigoog#page/n72/mode/1up Internet Archive]; {{FHL|281281|item|disp=FHL Book 973 X2pcu}}; William O. Lynch, "The Westward Flow of Southern Colonists before 1861," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 9, No. 3 (Aug. 1943):325. Digital version at [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2191319 JSTOR] ($).</ref></center>

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===== Runaway Slaves  =====

*Windley, Lathan A., comp. ''Runaway Slave Advertisements''. 4 vols. (Virginia and North Carolina) Wesport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. {{FHL|419052|item|disp=FHL Book 975 F2wL}}. For Virginia, see volume one.

'''Virginia Plantation Records''' Occasionally, slaves are mentioned in plantation records. The [[Family History Library]] has several series of plantation records from the periods before and after the Civil War. These are listed in the Author/Title Search of the Family History Library Catalog under the STAMPP, KENNETH M. or in the Subject Search under PLANTATION LIFE - VIRGINIA or PLANTATION LIFE - SOUTHERN STATES. Records are available at:  

*'''Library of Congress''': inventory, {{FHL|566380|item|disp=FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. C}}; original records, films beginning with {{FHL|560814|item|disp=FHL Film 1534247}}.  

*'''University of Virginia Library''': inventory, {{FHL|566400|item|disp=FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. E}}; original records, films beginning with {{FHL|560817|item|disp=FHL Film 1534274}}.  

Not all blacks were slaves in Virginia before the Civil War. Virginia had the largest free black population in the United States.<ref>''The Free Negro in Virginia,'' 9.</ref> Many black families had been free there since the 1600s. For each eight slaves in the state, there was one free person of color.<ref>''The Free Negro in Virginia,'' 10.</ref> Some of the largest families had the surnames Cumbo, Driggers, and Goins. Many free people of color descended from black slave men who had children by white indentured servant women.<ref name="drig">The previous school of thought had the colors and genders swapped - it was believed that they descended from illegitimate offspring of white slave masters and black slave women. A 1662 law stated that the offspring of such relations would take the legal status of the mother. Most children resulting from illicit relations between white slave masters and black slave women remained in slavery. See Paul Heinegg, ''Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware,'' http://freeafricanamericans.com/, accessed 25 May 2012; and ''The Free Negro in Virginia,'' 19.</ref> Others were manumitted.<br>  

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| bgcolor="#cc99ff" colspan="4" | <center>'''Number of Free People of Color in Virginia'''<ref name="no">Includes modern-day West Virginia and part of the District of Columbia. ''Ninth Census of the United States: Statistics of Population, Tables I to VIII Inclusive'' (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872), 70, 72. Digital version at [http://archive.org/stream/ninthcensusunit00offigoog#page/n72/mode/1up Internet Archive]; {{FHL|281281|item|disp=FHL Book 973 X2pcu}}; William O. Lynch, "The Westward Flow of Southern Colonists before 1861," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 9, No. 3 (Aug. 1943):325. Digital version at [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2191319 JSTOR] ($).</ref></center>

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