African American Land and Property: Difference between revisions

{{AfrAm-sidebar}}''[[United States|United States]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[African American Research|African American Research]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[African American Land and Property|Land and Property]]''

Slaves were treated as chattel and their sale may be listed as a deed in land and property records of the county or state. Sometimes slaves were bequeathed or sold as part of the probate of an estate and this transfer or sale may be listed as a deed mixed in with probate records.

'''Registers of Slaves, Registers of Freedmen, and Manumission Papers'''

By the time of start of the Civil War in 1861 about ten percent of African Americans were free. Most free African Americans carried their own papers, but these could be stolen. In order to distinguish between slaves, runaways, and free African Americans, many counties or states in the upper South, and border states kept one or more sets of registers or papers. Some had registers of slaves. Some kept registers of blacks, freedmen, "free men of color," or "free negroes." Some kept copies of manumission papers of people freed from enslavement. To find these kinds of registers or papers look in county courthouse records. They are most likely found in the court papers, or among the land and property deeds, or occasionally in probate records, or even with taxation records. Sometimes these kinds of records are found at state libraries, archives, or historical societies.