African American Resources for Tennessee: Difference between revisions

From FamilySearch Wiki
VisualWikitext
(Created page with '*[http://newdeal.feri.org/guides/tnguide/ch10.htm "Negros in Tennessee"] chapter 10 of the online book ''Tennessee: A Guide to the State.'' Compiled and Written by the Federal Wr…')
 
m (Removed afrigeneas site per Wiki management)
 
(106 intermediate revisions by 33 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
*[http://newdeal.feri.org/guides/tnguide/ch10.htm "Negros in Tennessee"] chapter 10 of the online book ''Tennessee: A Guide to the State.'' Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Tennessee. American Guide Series. (No Place: New Deal Network, 1996) Original published: Tennessee: State of Tennessee. Department of Concervation, Division of Information, 1939. This chapter provides a concise introduction to African Americans in Tennessee.
{{TN-sidebar}}
{{breadcrumb
| link1=[[United States Genealogy|United States]]
| link2=[[African American Genealogy|African American Genealogy]]
| link3=[[Tennessee, United States Genealogy|Tennessee]]
| link4=
| link5=[[African American Resources for Tennessee|African American Resources]]
}}
<div id="fsButtons"><span class="online_records_button">[[African American Online Genealogy Records]]</span></div>
{{TOC left}}
 
==Online Resources==
<li>'''1846-1867''' [https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1231 U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867] at Ancestry ($)</li>
<li>'''1861-1872''' [https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1414908 United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872] at FamilySearch</li>
<li>'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2333777|Tennessee, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[Tennessee, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]; images only</li>
<li>'''1865-1874''' [https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1417695 Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874] at FamilySearch</li>
<li>[[African American Digital Bookshelf]] - a growing list of digital books on FamilySearch and other websites</li>
<li>[http://www.discoverfreedmen.org/ Discover Freedmen] - this site searches all of the Freedmen's Bureau record collections on FamilySearch altogether (and redirects there)</li>
<li>[https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/lantern/ The Lantern Project (Legal Records Documenting Enslaved Persons)] at Mississippi State University Libraries — index & images</li>
 
{{TNAfricanAm}}
 
==Research Strategy==
The [[Tennessee State Library and Archives|Tennessee State Library and Archives]] in Nashville offers several free online research guides for tracing Tennessee African Americans in their collection:
<li>[http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/history/bibliographies/aa3.htm African American Collections of Note at TSLA]</li>
<li>[http://www.tn.gov/tsla/history/guides/guide09.htm African American Genealogical Resources @ TSLA]</li>
<li>FamilySearch Guide:[http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/RG/images/TN_BMDT3_Statewide_Indexes.pdf Tennessee Statewide Indexes and Collections]</li>
<li>[http://tn.gov/tsla/history/bibliographies/aa2.htm Guide to African American Genealogy-Related Documents Prior to 1865 in the Collections of the Tennessee State Library and Archives]</li>
<li>[http://tn.gov/tsla/history/bibliographies/aa1.htm Selected Bibliography of African American Genealogical Resources in the Tennessee State Library and Archives]</li>
 
==History==
 
*Lamon, Lester C. ''Blacks in Tennessee, 1791-1970''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981. {{FSC|506499|item|disp=book 976.8 F2L}}. This indexed book deals with the African American experience in Tennessee with chapters arranged by 20- to 50-year time periods.<br>
*[http://newdeal.feri.org/guides/tnguide/ch10.htm "Negroes in Tennessee"] chapter 10 of the online book ''Tennessee: A Guide to the State.'' Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Tennessee. American Guide Series. (No Place: New Deal Network, 1996) Original published: Tennessee: State of Tennessee. Department of Conservation, Division of Information, 1939. This chapter provides a concise introduction to African Americans in Tennessee.
*Patterson, C. Perry. [https://www.archive.org/details/negrointennessee01patt ''The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865''.] Austin, Texas: The University of Texas, 1922. Free digitized copy.  Written in 1922, this book can be viewed as treating slavery without a degree of compassion and understanding, but it is valuable for its information about the slavery system and laws in Tennessee.
*[http://dinaal.tnstate.edu/iii/encore/search?formids=target&lang=eng&suite=def&reservedids=lang%2Csuite&submitmode=&submitname=&target=Profiles+of+African+Americans+in+Tennessee ''Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee''], Editors Bobby L.Lovett and Linda T. Winn. Nashville, Tennessee: Annual Local Conference on Afro-American Culture and History, 1996. This online publication contains short biographies of 70 members of the Tennessee General Assembly between 1873-1995.
*Works Projects Administration. ''[https://www.archive.org/details/slavenarrativesa19932gut Slave Narratives - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves].''Washington, 1941. Free digital copy.
 
==Resources==
===Biographies===
 
*Works Projects Administration. ''Slave Narratives - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Tennessee Narratives.''Washington, 1941. Free digital copy, courtesy: [https://www.archive.org/details/slavenarrativesa19932gut Internet Archive].
 
===Cemeteries===
African Americans were generally buried in race-specific cemeteries.
 
===Census Records===
The first Tennessee census that included the names and identities of formerly enslaved persons was taken in 1870.
 
===Church Records===
African Americans typically worshiped apart from white congregations in their own churches.
 
===Emancipation Records===
===Funeral Homes===
*[https://app.air.inc/a/borzvL1af/b/8dc76b25-27b0-42b5-a889-6c7027db068f CAAGS Obituary and Funeral Home Collection] at California African American Genealogical Society - index & images
 
===Genealogies===
===Land and Property===
====Plantation====
[https://sankofagenus.com/tennessee/ Sankofagen: Tennessee plantations and slave labor sites]
 
=== Law and Legislation ===
*{{FSC|723107|item|disp=Slavery Statutes - Tennessee ca. 1795-1865 (16 fiche) FS Library 6118914}}
*{{FSC|744709|item|disp=Paul Finkelman, editorial advisor, ''State slavery statutes : guide to the microfiche collection'' Frederick, Maryland : University Pub. of America, c1989 FS Library 975 F23s}}
===Obituaries===
*[https://app.air.inc/a/borzvL1af/b/8dc76b25-27b0-42b5-a889-6c7027db068f CAAGS Obituary and Funeral Home Collection] at California African American Genealogical Society - index & images
 
===Oral Histories===
===Other Records===
'''Maps'''
 
Charles A. Reeves Jr. has created a detailed map, based on the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, illustrating the distribution of enslaved persons throughout Tennessee just before the Civil War broke out. It may be purchased for a small fee through his [http://reevesmaps.com/map_catalog_original.htm website], which includes a scaled-down image of the map:
 
*''Tennessee Slave Population As Reported in the 1860 Census''
 
===Military Records===
For pensions of African Americans who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, see:
 
*Brogden, John V. and Willie L. Robinson. [http://www.angelfire.com/wi/Carver/csaaa.html Tennessee Colored Pension Applications for CSA Service] [Civil War], available online.
 
*Gale Williams Bamman, contributed by. '' African-American Impressed for Service on the Nashville and North Western Railroad, October, 1863. '' Notes and Documents. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80 # 3 (September, 1992): 204 - 210. FS Library 973 B2ng
 
===Newspapers===
*[https://informationwanted.org/ Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery]
 
===Probate Records===
Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. ''Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files'' NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 23–27. FS Library 973 D25ngs
 
===Reconstruction Records===
Research consists of consulting the same record types as for non-African Americans. In addition, there are some types of records specific to African American research, such as emancipation records, apprenticeship bonds for Freedmen, and the other types of records.
 
====Freedman’s Bank====
An excellent source is the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (visit the [[African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records]] page to learn more). This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and Freedmen. Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers from 3 March 1865 to 25 July 1874 may list the name of the depositor, date of entry, age, birthplace, residence, complexion, name of employer or occupation, wife or husband’s name, death information, children’s names, name of father and mother, brothers’ and sisters’ names, remarks, and signature. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former slaveholder and the name of the plantation. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. The collection is organized alphabetically by state, then city where the bank was located, then date the account was established, then account number.<br>
 
Online collections of Freedman's Bank records:
 
*[https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1417695 United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874]
*[https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8755 U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1871 ($)]
 
====Freedmen's Bureau====
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist formerly enslaved persons in the southern United States. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists.  Such documents include censuses, marriage records, and medical records.  These records often include full names, former slaveholder and plantations, and current residences.<ref>"African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau," "African American Heritage," ''National Archives'', accessed 11 May 2018. </ref> For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of enslaved persons. These films do not appear to contain the names of the enslaved.
 
Tennessee had two branches of this bank at:
 
*Memphis 1865–1874 - Accounts 1–6298
*Nashville 1871–1874 - Accounts 4174–6189
 
The signature registers for these branches are microfilmed:
 
*Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (Washington, D.C.). ''Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1871–1874''. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0816. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1969. {{FSC|709470|item|disp=FS Library fikm928590}}
 
To find Freedmen's Bureau records:
 
*[http://www.discoverfreedmen.org/ DiscoverFreedmen] - the search on this site will utilize all of the Freedmen's Bureau records on FamilySearch, including:
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2432941|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Claim Records,1865-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau Claim Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2432992|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records, 1865-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2475025|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contracts, Indenture and Apprenticeship Records, 1865-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contracts, Indenture and Apprenticeship Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1861-1872''' {{RecordSearch|1414908|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[United States Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2431759|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872}} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2515868|United States, Freedmen's Bureau Records of Persons and Articles Hired, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau Records of Persons and Articles Hired - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2515865|United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Freedmen's Court Records, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen’s Bureau, Freedmen’s Court Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2515867|United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Land and Property Records, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Land and Property Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2492627|United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen's Complaints, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen's Complaints - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2427894|United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
 
*Other FamilySearch collections not included:
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2333777|Tennessee, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 }} - [[Tennessee, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2575789|United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records,1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2721171|United States Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872 }} at FamilySearch - [[United States Freedmen’s Bureau, Records of Freedmen - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]
**'''1865-1872''' {{RecordSearch|2427901|''United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Assistant Commissioner, 1865-1872''}} at FamilySearch - [[United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Assistant Commissioner - FamilySearch Historical Records|How to Use this Collection]]; Images only. These reports primarily contain statistical and historical information.
 
*More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search for "FREEDMEN - TENNESSEE" in the Subjects search bar to find.
 
Other websites include:
 
*[http://www.freedmensbureau.com/tennessee/index.htm The Freedmen's Bureau Online: Tennessee]
 
Visit the [[African American Freedmen's Bureau Records]] page to learn more about utilizing these records.<br>
 
===School Records===
===Slavery Records===
Records consist of importation declarations of enslaved persons, plantation records, Tennessee hiring practices, census records, white family records, church and cemetery records, military records, vital records, and numerous Tennessee court records.
 
African American vital records were usually recorded in separate books for many years. Enslaved persons are sometimes mentioned in deeds, wills, tax records, or court order books. A few parish registers list enslaved persons who attended church with their slaveholders.
 
See the [[Tennessee Land and Property|Land and Property]], [[Tennessee Probate Records|Probate Records]], [[Tennessee Taxation|Taxation]], [[Tennessee Court Records|Court Records]], and [[Tennessee Church Records|Church Records]] wiki articles for Tennessee.
 
Occasionally, enslaved persons are mentioned in records of the plantations where they served. A collection of plantation records is:
 
*Stamp, Kenneth M. ''Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War''. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1989–1992. The records of several plantations were microfilmed in several series. They are indexed with FS Library film numbers in FamilySearch Library Bibliography of African American Sources: As of 1994, mentioned below.
 
An index to records at the FamilySearch Library containing the names of African Americans is:
 
*Taylor, Marie. FamilySearch Library ''Bibliography of African American Sources: As of 1994''. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch Library, United States Reference, 2000. (FS Library book {{FSC|956235|title-id|disp=}}; [this link allows access to a digital image].) Includes information taken from church, court, slavery, and vital records, as well as from the Kenneth Stamp collection of Southern plantation records.
<div style="width: 100%; float: left">
A list of enslaved persons that were impressed to work on the railroads is in:
 
*Bamman, Gale Williams. "African-Americans Impressed for Service on the Nashville and North Western Railroad, October 1863." ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'', September 1992, 204-210. Includes: name, age, height, complexion, name of slaveholder, county, town, and other remarks.
 
Enslaved persons were gradually emancipated by Tennessee law beginning in 1865.
 
Not all Black residents of Tennessee were enslaved before the Civil War. The following is a list of Free Black heads of household living in Tennessee counties at the time the 1820 U.S. Federal Census was taken (census records do not survive for all counties that year):
 
*Waldrep, G.C. "'Free Colored' Heads of Household in the 1820 Tennessee Census," available [http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Tenn_1820.htm online], courtesy: [http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/ Free African Americans] website.
 
Gale Williams Bamman, CG located the following statistics in a book by Historian Ira Berlin:<ref>Gale Williams Bamman, "Research in Tennessee," ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'', Vol. 81, No. 2 (Jun. 1993): 105. FS Library US/CAN Book 973 B2ng v. 81 (1993), citing Ira Berlin, ''Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), 136-137.</ref>
 
'''Free African American Population in Antebellum Tennessee'''
 
{| width="200" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="1"
|-
|'''Year'''
|'''Number'''
|-
|1820
|2,727
|-
|1860
|7,300
|}
===Vital Records===
*{{FSC|42909|item|disp=Andrew Jackson, Account book, 1845-1877. Hermitage}}
 
====Birth====
====Marriage====
The Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) was created by the US government to assist formerly enslaved persons in the southern United States. One of their responsibilities was to record the marriages (past and present) of the formerly enslaved couples. These records can be found in the collections below and include the lists of marriages that occurred previously, marriage certificates, and marriage licenses.  The information contained on the records may include the name of the husband and wife/groom and bride, age, occupation, residence, year or date of marriage, by whom, number of children, and remarks.
 
*[https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1414908 United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872]
*[https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1231 U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867]
 
====Death====
====Divorce====
 
===Voting Records===
==Archives and Libraries==
[https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/ '''National Civil Rights Museum''']<br>
450 Mulberry St.<br>
Memphis, TN 38103<br>
Phone: (901) 521-9699<br><br>
 
[http://www.bessiesmithcc.org/ '''Bessie Smith Cultural Center''']<br>
200 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard<br>
Chattanooga, TN 37403<br>
Email: info@bessiesmithcc.org<br>
Phone: (423) 266-8658<br><br>
 
[https://sos.tn.gov/tsla '''Tennessee State Library and Archives''']<br>
403 7th Avenue North<br>
Nashville,TN 37243 <br>
Phone: 615-741-2764 <br>
 
*[https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/library-and-archives-workshop-runaways-coffles-and-fancy-girls-history-slavery Library and Archives Workshop: Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee.]
*[https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/employment-rolls-and-nonpayment-rolls-negroes-employed-defenses-nashville-tennessee Civil War Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls - Defenses of  Nashville, 1862-1863] Includes online index.
 
==Societies==
 
==References==
<references />
 
 
 
 
{{African American}}
{{Tennessee|Tennessee}}
 
[[Category:Tennessee, United States]]
[[Category:African American Records]]
[[Category:Tennessee Cultural Groups]]

Latest revision as of 16:49, 8 April 2025

Tennessee Wiki Topics
Tennessee flag.png
Beginning Research
Record Types
Tennessee Background
Cultural Groups
Local Research Resources

Online Resources[edit | edit source]

  • 1846-1867 U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867 at Ancestry ($)
  • 1861-1872 United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872 at FamilySearch
  • 1865-1872 Tennessee, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; images only
  • 1865-1874 Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 at FamilySearch
  • African American Digital Bookshelf - a growing list of digital books on FamilySearch and other websites
  • Discover Freedmen - this site searches all of the Freedmen's Bureau record collections on FamilySearch altogether (and redirects there)
  • The Lantern Project (Legal Records Documenting Enslaved Persons) at Mississippi State University Libraries — index & images
    • TVA worker at a phosphate furnace 1942

    Research Strategy[edit | edit source]

    The Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville offers several free online research guides for tracing Tennessee African Americans in their collection:

  • African American Collections of Note at TSLA
  • African American Genealogical Resources @ TSLA
  • FamilySearch Guide:Tennessee Statewide Indexes and Collections
  • Guide to African American Genealogy-Related Documents Prior to 1865 in the Collections of the Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Selected Bibliography of African American Genealogical Resources in the Tennessee State Library and Archives

    • History[edit | edit source]

    • Lamon, Lester C. Blacks in Tennessee, 1791-1970. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981. book 976.8 F2L. This indexed book deals with the African American experience in Tennessee with chapters arranged by 20- to 50-year time periods.
    • "Negroes in Tennessee" chapter 10 of the online book Tennessee: A Guide to the State. Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Tennessee. American Guide Series. (No Place: New Deal Network, 1996) Original published: Tennessee: State of Tennessee. Department of Conservation, Division of Information, 1939. This chapter provides a concise introduction to African Americans in Tennessee.
    • Patterson, C. Perry. The Negro in Tennessee, 1790-1865. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas, 1922. Free digitized copy. Written in 1922, this book can be viewed as treating slavery without a degree of compassion and understanding, but it is valuable for its information about the slavery system and laws in Tennessee.
    • Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee, Editors Bobby L.Lovett and Linda T. Winn. Nashville, Tennessee: Annual Local Conference on Afro-American Culture and History, 1996. This online publication contains short biographies of 70 members of the Tennessee General Assembly between 1873-1995.
    • Works Projects Administration. Slave Narratives - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves.Washington, 1941. Free digital copy.

    Resources[edit | edit source]

    Biographies[edit | edit source]

    • Works Projects Administration. Slave Narratives - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Tennessee Narratives.Washington, 1941. Free digital copy, courtesy: Internet Archive.

    Cemeteries[edit | edit source]

    African Americans were generally buried in race-specific cemeteries.

    Census Records[edit | edit source]

    The first Tennessee census that included the names and identities of formerly enslaved persons was taken in 1870.

    Church Records[edit | edit source]

    African Americans typically worshiped apart from white congregations in their own churches.

    Emancipation Records[edit | edit source]

    Funeral Homes[edit | edit source]

    Genealogies[edit | edit source]

    Land and Property[edit | edit source]

    Plantation[edit | edit source]

    Sankofagen: Tennessee plantations and slave labor sites

    Law and Legislation[edit | edit source]

    Obituaries[edit | edit source]

    Oral Histories[edit | edit source]

    Other Records[edit | edit source]

    Maps

    Charles A. Reeves Jr. has created a detailed map, based on the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, illustrating the distribution of enslaved persons throughout Tennessee just before the Civil War broke out. It may be purchased for a small fee through his website, which includes a scaled-down image of the map:

    • Tennessee Slave Population As Reported in the 1860 Census

    Military Records[edit | edit source]

    For pensions of African Americans who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, see:

    • Gale Williams Bamman, contributed by. African-American Impressed for Service on the Nashville and North Western Railroad, October, 1863. Notes and Documents. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80 # 3 (September, 1992): 204 - 210. FS Library 973 B2ng

    Newspapers[edit | edit source]

    Probate Records[edit | edit source]

    Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 23–27. FS Library 973 D25ngs

    Reconstruction Records[edit | edit source]

    Research consists of consulting the same record types as for non-African Americans. In addition, there are some types of records specific to African American research, such as emancipation records, apprenticeship bonds for Freedmen, and the other types of records.

    Freedman’s Bank[edit | edit source]

    An excellent source is the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (visit the African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records page to learn more). This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and Freedmen. Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers from 3 March 1865 to 25 July 1874 may list the name of the depositor, date of entry, age, birthplace, residence, complexion, name of employer or occupation, wife or husband’s name, death information, children’s names, name of father and mother, brothers’ and sisters’ names, remarks, and signature. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former slaveholder and the name of the plantation. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. The collection is organized alphabetically by state, then city where the bank was located, then date the account was established, then account number.

    Online collections of Freedman's Bank records:

    Freedmen's Bureau[edit | edit source]

    The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist formerly enslaved persons in the southern United States. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. Such documents include censuses, marriage records, and medical records. These records often include full names, former slaveholder and plantations, and current residences.[1] For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of enslaved persons. These films do not appear to contain the names of the enslaved.

    Tennessee had two branches of this bank at:

    • Memphis 1865–1874 - Accounts 1–6298
    • Nashville 1871–1874 - Accounts 4174–6189

    The signature registers for these branches are microfilmed:

    • Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (Washington, D.C.). Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1871–1874. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0816. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1969. FS Library fikm928590

    To find Freedmen's Bureau records:

    • More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search for "FREEDMEN - TENNESSEE" in the Subjects search bar to find.

    Other websites include:

    Visit the African American Freedmen's Bureau Records page to learn more about utilizing these records.

    School Records[edit | edit source]

    Slavery Records[edit | edit source]

    Records consist of importation declarations of enslaved persons, plantation records, Tennessee hiring practices, census records, white family records, church and cemetery records, military records, vital records, and numerous Tennessee court records.

    African American vital records were usually recorded in separate books for many years. Enslaved persons are sometimes mentioned in deeds, wills, tax records, or court order books. A few parish registers list enslaved persons who attended church with their slaveholders.

    See the Land and Property, Probate Records, Taxation, Court Records, and Church Records wiki articles for Tennessee.

    Occasionally, enslaved persons are mentioned in records of the plantations where they served. A collection of plantation records is:

    • Stamp, Kenneth M. Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1989–1992. The records of several plantations were microfilmed in several series. They are indexed with FS Library film numbers in FamilySearch Library Bibliography of African American Sources: As of 1994, mentioned below.

    An index to records at the FamilySearch Library containing the names of African Americans is:

    • Taylor, Marie. FamilySearch Library Bibliography of African American Sources: As of 1994. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch Library, United States Reference, 2000. (FS Library book [1]; [this link allows access to a digital image].) Includes information taken from church, court, slavery, and vital records, as well as from the Kenneth Stamp collection of Southern plantation records.

    A list of enslaved persons that were impressed to work on the railroads is in:

    • Bamman, Gale Williams. "African-Americans Impressed for Service on the Nashville and North Western Railroad, October 1863." National Genealogical Society Quarterly, September 1992, 204-210. Includes: name, age, height, complexion, name of slaveholder, county, town, and other remarks.

    Enslaved persons were gradually emancipated by Tennessee law beginning in 1865.

    Not all Black residents of Tennessee were enslaved before the Civil War. The following is a list of Free Black heads of household living in Tennessee counties at the time the 1820 U.S. Federal Census was taken (census records do not survive for all counties that year):

    Gale Williams Bamman, CG located the following statistics in a book by Historian Ira Berlin:[2]

    Free African American Population in Antebellum Tennessee

    Year Number
    1820 2,727
    1860 7,300

    Vital Records[edit | edit source]

    Birth[edit | edit source]

    Marriage[edit | edit source]

    The Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) was created by the US government to assist formerly enslaved persons in the southern United States. One of their responsibilities was to record the marriages (past and present) of the formerly enslaved couples. These records can be found in the collections below and include the lists of marriages that occurred previously, marriage certificates, and marriage licenses. The information contained on the records may include the name of the husband and wife/groom and bride, age, occupation, residence, year or date of marriage, by whom, number of children, and remarks.

    Death[edit | edit source]

    Divorce[edit | edit source]

    Voting Records[edit | edit source]

    Archives and Libraries[edit | edit source]

    National Civil Rights Museum
    450 Mulberry St.
    Memphis, TN 38103
    Phone: (901) 521-9699

    Bessie Smith Cultural Center
    200 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard
    Chattanooga, TN 37403
    Email: info@bessiesmithcc.org
    Phone: (423) 266-8658

    Tennessee State Library and Archives
    403 7th Avenue North
    Nashville,TN 37243
    Phone: 615-741-2764

    Societies[edit | edit source]

    References[edit | edit source]

    1. ↑ "African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau," "African American Heritage," National Archives, accessed 11 May 2018.
    2. ↑ Gale Williams Bamman, "Research in Tennessee," National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Jun. 1993): 105. FS Library US/CAN Book 973 B2ng v. 81 (1993), citing Ira Berlin, Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), 136-137.



    v • d• e
    Links to African American Research-related articles
    Topics
    Repositories
    Allen County Public Library · FamilySearch Library · Library of Congress · National Archives I · National Archives Regional Branches · National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, John Parker Library · Birmingham Civil Rights Institute · Black Archives of Mid-America · Duke Univeristy Rubenstein Library · FamilySearch Centers · Godfrey Memorial Library · Kalamazoo College Black History Mobile Museum · New England Historic Genealogical Society · Newberry Library · John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg · Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum · University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries · University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center · University of Pittsburgh Hillman Library
    States


    v • d• e
    Links to Tennessee-related articles
    Topics
    Counties
    Anderson · Bedford · Benton · Bledsoe · Blount · Bradley · Campbell · Cannon · Carroll · Carter · Cheatham · Chester · Claiborne · Clay · Cocke · Coffee · Crockett · Cumberland · Davidson · Decatur · DeKalb · Dickson · Dyer · Fayette · Fentress · Franklin · Gibson · Giles · Grainger · Greene · Grundy · Hamblen · Hamilton · Hancock · Hardeman · Hardin · Hawkins · Haywood · Henderson · Henry · Hickman · Houston · Humphreys · Jackson · Jefferson · Johnson · Knox · Lake · Lauderdale · Lawrence · Lewis · Lincoln · Loudon · McMinn · McNairy · Macon · Madison · Marion · Marshall · Maury · Meigs · Monroe · Montgomery · Moore · Morgan · Obion · Overton · Perry · Pickett · Polk · Putnam · Rhea · Roane · Robertson · Rutherford · Scott · Sequatchie · Sevier · Shelby · Smith · Stewart · Sullivan · Sumner · Tipton · Trousdale · Unicoi · Union · Van Buren · Warren · Washington · Wayne · Weakley · White · Williamson · Wilson
    Extinct
    Counties
    Major
    Repositories
    Migration
    Routes
    Cumberland River · Mississippi River · Tennessee River · Cumberland Trace · Black Fox Trail · Bolivar and Memphis Trail · Butterfield Overland Mail · Catawba Trail · Chattanooga-Willstown Road · Nickajack Trail · Cisco and Middle Tennessee Trail · Cumberland and Great Lake Trail · Cumberland and Ohio Falls Trail · Federal Road · Great Indian Warpath · Great South Trail · Great Trading Path · Great Valley Road · Jackson's Military Road · Jonesboro Road · Kentucky Road · West Tennessee Trail · Maysville Turnpike · Memphis, Pontotoc and Mobile Trail · Mississippi and Tennessee River Trail · Nashville Road · Nashville-Saline River Trail · Chickasaw Trail · Old Cherokee Path · Tennessee, Ohio and Great Lakes Trail · Unicoi Trail · West Tennessee Chickasaw Trail · Wilderness Road · Illinois Central Railroad

    This website requires a paid subscription for full access. Some subscription websites are available for free at your local FamilySearch Center or Affiliate Library.

    To access available information, first log into FamilySearch.

    Retrieved from "https://integration-ru.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=African_American_Resources_for_Tennessee&oldid=6155081"