Legislative acts may contain divorce, manumission, and other types of personal information. For instance, here are two examples of manumissions involving free people of color in Mobile County, Alabama, and Escambia County, Florida. These acts provide clues for further research. For instance, deed book C (pages 454 and 493) contains additional information on the Petit manumission. (See Family History Library microfilm 932527.)
Here is another example of testimony of an African American taken after the Civil War. The federal government held hearings to discuss race relations, and economic and social conditions in the South. Rev. E. P. Holmes testified in 1883 that he was born in Georgia, that he was 37 years old, and that when he was a slave he belonged to Henry Holmes. He provided other details about his family. For additional information on these hearings and other examples of African American testimony, please see my article “Jumping Over the Broomstick: Resources for Documenting Slave “Marriages,”’ which is available on my website. Have you explored the Serial Set to locate information on your ancestors?
Census enumerators sometimes made “errors” that actually were beneficial to researchers. For instance, they entered more information than they were instructed to write down. One such example shows that an enumerator in St. Louis apparently recorded the names of slaves in the slave schedule (as well as some data on the slave owners)! For similar cases, see Alycon Trubey Pierce, "In Praise of Errors Made by Census Enumerators," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 81 (March 1993): 51-55. Have you found “errors” in your census research?
Here is another testimony by an African American, 1871, regarding the activities of the KKK. As noted in an earlier post, a joint State-House committee took depositions from both white and African American citizens in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. These volumes are part of the Serial Set, volumes 1484-96. Some former slaves mentioned, for example, former owners, family relationships, residence, and birthplace. For other examples, please see my article “Jumping Over the Broomstick: Resources for Documenting Slave “Marriages,”’ posted on my website.
Here is a copy of a Mobile ordinance that required free Negroes to register with local authorities. The only evidence I have found of Mobile County free people of color registering was a list of names published in the Mobile Commercial Register, May 15, 1830. That list contains only 48 names.
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August 2015
CategoriesAuthorI am a professional genealogist specializing in tracing the lives of African Americans. I earned my Ph.D. in history from the University of Alabama. |