African American Probate Records: Difference between revisions

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For the most part, besides being counted as chattel on tax, land deed, and slave schedules, African Americans were not counted as people until the 1870 census. Other records of interest would be church records, which notes people of color being allowed or dispelled from the church, etc., but they are not always given a surname. Sometimes they are noted by their first name and "as belonging to "X" slaveowner." Therefore, African American researchers are very dependent upon getting information from the slaveowning family's documentation.  

'''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.  

{{African American|African American}}

[[Category:African_American Records]]