African American Resources for Virginia

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Slaves awaiting sale in Richmond, Virginia (1853).

Strategies

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African American research in Virginia can be divided into two general time periods - before and after the Civil War.

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.

Societies dedicated to African American genealogy, such as the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc., include local chapters in Virginia that offer many resources to help people with black ancestry.

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examines the Virginia ancestry of several prominent African Americans living today. His television series will provide you with many tips for tracing your own Virginia family tree.

Genetic Testing

Many African Americans alive today are having their DNA tested to learn which tribes in Africa they descend from. To learn more about this procedure, read Hiring a DNA Testing Company.

History

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 African-Americans in Virginia.

Number of slaves in Virginia:

• 1830: 469,757
• 1840: 449,087
• 1860: 490,865

PBS's interactive Reconstruction: The Second Civil War discusses what life was like for freed slaves and their descendants in the nineteenth century.

Slavery Legislation. To learn about the laws that affected Virginia slaves, see:

• Finkelman, Paul. State Slavery Statutes: Guide to the Microfiche Collection. Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1989. FHL Book 975 F23s. Pages 317-56 pertain to Virginia and cover the years 1789-1865. The advertisements are indexed. The records list the names of many slaves and slave owners.

The Geography of Slavery in Virginia includes a list of Virginia slave laws, references to slaves in the House of Burgesses Journals, and other documents.

Records

1619-1865: Period of slavery

Slaves are sometimes mentioned by first name in slavemasters' deeds (see the Virginia Land and Property),slave schedules (see Virginia Census), wills (see Virginia Probate Records), tax lists (see Virginia Taxation), family Bibles and diaries (see Virginia Bible Records), plantation records, and in court order books (see Virginia Court Records). A few parish registers (see Virginia Church Records) list slaves who attended church with their masters. In Virginia the births of slave children should be listed in county birth registers starting in 1853 (see Virginia Vital Records).

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Internet site contains references to 35,000 slave voyages, including over 67,000 Africans aboard slave ships, using name, age, gender, origin, and place of embarkation. The database documents the slave trade between Africa, Europe, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States.

African American Families Database online The Central Virginia History Researchers (CVHR) has now released the African-American Families Database online. The first stage of this website provides a template for researchers trying to locate specific African- Americans who lived between circa 1850 and 1880. This period is particularly challenging for African-American family research because of the difficulty in relating ante-bellum and post-bellum records. The two plantations on which the website currently focuses are Hydraulic Plantation (5 miles north of Charlottesville, W.V.), and the Bleak House Plantation (9 miles northwest of Charlottesville W.V.).The site contains information on the plantations and information on the enslaved people living on these two plantations. The site also contains a blog focusing on the activities of the CVHR group, and details about the Database project.

Paul Heinegg prepared a detailed list of slaves manumitted between 1782 and the 1820s:

• Virginia Slaves Freed After 1782

Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names is a free online database created by the Virginia Historical Society. Information on many Virginia slaves is available in this work in progress.

Names of hundreds of runaway slaves, their descriptions, owners, and ages appeared in newspapers. They have been published and can be found in:

• Windley, Lathan A., comp. Runaway Slave Advertisements. 4 vols. (Virginia and North Carolina) Wesport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. FHL Book 975 F2wL. For Virginia, see volume one.

Many eighteenth-century runaway slave advertisements were published in the Virginia Gazette. Indexed images of the Virginia Gazette (1736-1780) are available online through the Colonial Williamsburg website. (Browse for terms such as "slaves.") Professor Tom Costa and The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia have indexed all the runaway advertisements for slaves mentioned in this publication and other Virginia newspapers (1736-1803), see: The Geography of Slavery in Virginia. These newspapers are valuable resources for all Virginia regions.

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 Book 975 H2sm Ser. C; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1534247.
• University of Virginia Library: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. E; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1534274.
• Duke University Library: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. F; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1549774.
• University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. J; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1672791.
• Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. K; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1844005. These records are from the Shirley plantation of the Carter family.
• College of William and Mary, Earl Gregg Swem Library: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. L; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1844318.
• Virginia Historical Society: inventory, FHL Book 975 H2sm Ser. M; original records, films beginning with FHL Film 1985945.

The Family History Library has microfilms of most of the records described in the guide booklets. Virginia plantation records are scattered throughout.

Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves, recorded after the Civil War, recounts memories of life as a slave.

For an index of slaves and free men of color, listed in the Index to Sons of the American Revolution applications, see the Virginia Periodicals section.

Patriots of Color is a free database at Archives.com. Includes details about 700+ black Virginians in the Revolutionary War.

Free People of Color

Not all blacks were slaves in Virginia before the Civil War. Many black families had been free since the 1600s. Some of the largest families had the surnames Cumbo, Driggers, and Goins. A large percentage of free people of color descend from black slave men who had children by white indentured servant women. Counties with large numbers of free African Americans in 1790 included: Accomack, Dinwiddie, Henrico, Nansemond, Northampton, and Southampton.

Prior to the Civil War, each Virginia county court kept a register of free negroes. Documentation of a black person's freedom status prevented them from being forced to be slaves. These registers may give the person's name, age, color, stature, marks and scars, and name the court of emancipation. Several of these registers are found at the Library of Virginia. The Family History Library has copies of some of these registers. They are usually found in the Family History Library Place Search under VIRGINIA, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS.

Example of registers that have been published:

• Boyd-Rush, Dorothy A. Free Negroes Registered in the Clerk's Office, Botetourt County, Virginia, 1802-1836. Athens, Georgia: Iberian Pub. Co., 1993. FHL Book 975.5 A1 no. 305.
• Ford, Benjamin. Free Black Registers, Albemarle County (1807-1865). Available online.
• Kegley, Mary B. Free People of Colour: Free Negroes, Indians, Portuguese and Freed Slaves. Wytheville, Virginia: Kegley Books, 2003. FHL Book 975.5 F2kf; digital version at Family History Archives.

Black families freed prior to 1820 are found in:

• Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware at http://freeafricanamericans.com/ (accessed 25 May 2012). About 2,000 pages of family histories based on colonial court order and minute books 1790-1810 census records, tax lists, wills, deeds, free Negro registers, marriage bonds, parish registers, and Revolutionary War pension files.

1865 to the Present

After the Civil War, African Americans appears in the same sources as white people, such as censuses (beginning in 1870), marriage registers (though there was often a separate register for "colored marriages"), birth certificates, death certificates, deeds, wills, military records, cemeteries and church records (though they were usually segregated churches and cemeteries), tax records, voter registrations, and newspapers (including ethnic African American newspapers). Unique records relating to specifically to black Virginians include cohabitation records and Freedmen's Bank records.

Cohabitation Records are registers created when the former slaves legalized their marriages which was not allowed until 1866. This valuable genealogical data is being made available online through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Memory Collection (scroll to "Cohabitation Registers"). More about this source is also found on the Cohabitation Records Wiki page, and the Virginia Cohabitation Records Wiki page.

Freedman's Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers may list the slave's former masters, birth date, birthplace, occupation, residences, death information, parents, children, spouse, or siblings. Virginia had three branches of this bank:

• Lynchburg 1871
• Norfolk 1871-1874
• Richmond 1867-1874

The signature registers for these branches are listed in:

• Freedman's Savings and Trust Company (Washington, DC) 1865-1874. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1969. Digital version online; also on film: FHL Film 928591. In each city, depositors' names are arranged by account number.

Two valuable sources for the period after the Civil War are:

1. United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1870. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1977. FHL Films 1549578-97. Most volumes are indexed.
2. United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1988. FHL Films 1601562-628. There are several indexes.

Freedmen's Bureau Virginia Marriages ca. 1815-1866--Names of thousands of former slaves are included in these records. A free index can be viewed at FamilySearch Record Search. Records may include the name of the bride and groom, date of marriage registration, residence, previous marriages, names and ages of children.

Some additional transcribed records are available at Freedmen's Bureau.com.

For a list of blacks who held public office during Reconstruction, see: Negro Office Holders in Virginia, 1865-1895, by Luther Porter Jackson.

Large African American cemeteries in Virginia have included:

• The African American Historic Cemeteries of Portsmouth VA on Facebook:  A friend's group of descendants and volunteers of the African American Cemeteries of Portsmouth: The Mt. Calvary Cemetery Complex (est 1879), Lincoln Memorial Cemetery (est 1912), and Grove Baptist Church cemetery (est 1840)
• The African American Historic Cemeteries of Portsmouth Virginia (web):  A friend's group of     descendants and volunteers of the African American Cemeteries of Portsmouth:  The Mt. Calvary Cemetery Complex (est. 1879), Lincoln Memorial Cemetery (est 1912), and Grove Baptist Church Cemetery (est. 1840).
• African American Cemeteries of Hampton Roads on Facebook.  A community forum for the African American cemeteries of Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Included are burial sites located in Norfolk, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, and additional areas throughout the Tidewater region.
• African American Cemeteries Online includes transcribed records from Accomack, Albemarle, Amherst, Dinwiddie, Fairfax, Halifax, Henrico, Page, Prince William, Russell, and Sussex county cemeteries.
• The Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery includes information about African Americans buried in Freedmen's Cemetery in Alexandria.
• African-American Cemeteries in Albemarle and Amherst Counties. Project sponsored by the African American Genealogy Group of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

The J.F. Bell Funeral Home in Charlottesville, Virginia maintained records of African American funerals, which are available online for the years 1917-1989.

The Library of Virginia has prepared a list of African-American Newspapers they hold.

Societies

• African American Genealogy Group of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Website includes register of free negroes, local African American cemeteries.
• Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), Chapter of Central Virginia
• AAHGS, Chapter of Greater Richmond, P.O. Box 27833, Richmond, VA 23261
• AAHGS, Chapter of Hampton Roads
• AAHGS, Chapter of Burke Brown Steppe
• Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County
• The Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage, Inc.
• Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical & Historical Society of Virginia serves the counties of Essex, Middlesex, King and Queen, King William, Gloucester, Mathews and the Northern Neck (King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland counties).

Archives and Libraries

• Virginia Historical Society - Guide to African-American Manuscripts
• The Library of Virginia - Resources for African American Genealogical Research
  • African American Church Histories at the Library of Virginia
  • African Americans in the Civil War
  • African American Newspapers Held in the Library of Virginia
• University of Virginia - Afro American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts
• Virginia Commonwealth University - Virginia Black History Archives Collections

For a list of Virginia plantation records held at various archives, see the Period of slavery section.

Websites

• African Ancestry in Virginia at Afrigeneas includes a concise history of black people in the state. The site includes links to databases for several Virginia record sets such as African American Census Schedules Online and Slave Data Collection.
• History of the American Negro, Virginia edition See page 728.
• World War I History Commission Questionnaires.Read more about the questionnaires.
• State online resources for African-American genealogy: Virginia
• More state online resources for African-American genealogy: Virginia
• Access Genealogy: Virginia African American Genealogy. Includes a large list of online resources.
• African American History of Accomac County, Virginia at Accomac Roots. Includes genealogy, census data, tax lists, indentures, cemeteries, maps, pictures, documents, and sources.

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