African American Resources for Maryland

Online Resources
FamilySearch 
 * Discover Freedmen - this site searches all of the Freedmen's Bureau record collections on FamilySearch altogether (and redirects there)
 * Maryland and Delaware, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872
 * United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
 * Registers of signatures of depositors, 1866-1874 (images)
 * Registers of signatures of depositors in branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874 (images)
 * Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874

 Maryland State Archives
 * Legacy of Slavery in Maryland, 1830 - 1880.


 * Archives of Maryland Online: Slavery Records
 * U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867 ($)
 * Patriots of Color
 * North American Genealogy Resources: African American
 * MDGenWeb: African American Resources

Research Strategy
Records of Slaves. The first step in researching slave records is to find the slave owner and his family. Historical research shows that 85% of the former slaves did not take their former master’s surname. This means you probably will not find the slave owner from your ancestor's surname. Other difficulties may also limit the success of finding the name of the slave owner.

To do research, follow the lives of the slave owner’s family as a guide to places and events that affected the slave. Because a slave was not regarded as a person but as property of the slave owner, look for slaves in records that list property. The slaves are listed under the name of the slave owner. The slave owner's tax records may name each slave and give his or her monetary value. The slave owner's church records may list the names of his slaves. The slave owner's will and estate records may indicate how his property and slaves were distributed at his death. Some slave owners freed their slaves in their will. Also check to see if the slave owner ever freed his slaves by manumission or gave them a certificate of freedom.

Many state and local laws governed slaves and slavery. Check city, county, and state court indexes because court records mention slaves by name. For a better understanding of Maryland slavery laws, see:
 * Finkelman, Paul. State Slavery Statutes: Guide to the Microfiche Collection. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1989. (Family History Library book .) Pages 168–207 pertain to Maryland and cover the years 1789–1865.

Records of "Free People of Color". Ten percent of all the African Americans living in the South were free. To research records of free African Americans during this period, use the other record types described in this outline. Also look for additional sources that name "free people of color."

For more information about employment opportunities for African Americans in the 1800s, see:
 * Afro-American directory and employees purchasing guide, 1895. - [Baltimore]: Afro-American Employees' Pub. Co., c1895. (Family History Library microfilm )

The Family History Library may have records of African Americans in Maryland. To find, search in FamilySearch Catalog in the Subject Search under:

MARYLAND - MINORITIES

MARYLAND - PUBLIC RECORDS

MARYLAND - VITAL RECORDS

Court Records
Fugitive Slave Law Court Records - Maryland - National Archives Catalog

Plantation
While plantation records are a valuable source for slave research, there are many road blocks to a successful search. Many slaves never lived on a plantation. Determining which plantation a slave lived on is often difficult or impossible. Many plantation records no longer exist. Many slave owners owned more than one plantation. Some plantation records carefully identified each slave by name, while others did not. Without a central repository for plantation records, finding the records you need can be a difficult task.

To make plantation records more accessible for research, University Publications of America has begun a major microfilming project. This company has been microfilming plantation records from repositories around the country. Kenneth M. Stampp has produced special guides for each series of films. These records are sometimes called the Stampp Collection. The guides provide valuable information about the records.

Records for a Maryland plantation may not be in a Maryland repository. Someone living many states away may have donated the records to a repository elsewhere. To determine if the plantation records you need are a part of this project, you must carefully study the guide for each series of films. To find these guides, look in the Author Search of the microfiche version of the catalog under Stampp, Kenneth M. Currently, the Family History Library has series "A" through "N." Series "I" is a special set of slave records of Ante-Bellum Southern Industries. These records include slaves who were owned by major companies instead of a slave owner. To find the guide for the plantation records available at the Maryland Historical Society, see:
 * Stampp, Kenneth M., ed. A Guide to Records of Ante- Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War: Series D, Selections from the Maryland Historical Society. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1985–. (Family History Library book ) The Family History Library has microfilms of the records described in the guide (on 14 Family History Library films beginning with film ).

Military Records
Patriots of Color is a free database at Archives.com. Includes details about 100 black Marylanders in the Revolutionary War.

Reconstruction Records
After the Civil War, African Americans appear in the other types of records described in this outline. Use those records first. In addition, there may be other records in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under MINORITIES. A Subject or Keyword Search may also be helpful under: AFRICAN-AMERICAN. The sources listed below may also help you find records of African American ancestors.

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 freed slaves. 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 master or mistress 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:
 * United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874
 * U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1871 ($)

Within each city the records are organized by account number. The Family History Library has these records for Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.. These records may provide the name of the former master, the name of the plantation, birth date, birthplace, occupation, address or city where the person was living, and the names of parents, children, spouses, and siblings. If the depositor served with the U.S. colored troops, the company he served with may also be listed.

Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist former slaves 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 masters and plantations, and current residences. 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 former slaves. These films do not appear to contain the names of former slaves.

To find Freedmen's Bureau records:

Other FamilySearch collections not included:
 * DiscoverFreedmen - the search on this site will utilize all of the Freedmen's Bureau records on FamilySearch, including:
 * Maryland and Delaware, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872
 * Images only. These reports primarily contain statistical and historical information.
 * More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search for "FREEDMEN - MARYLAND" in the Subjects search bar to find.
 * Images only. These reports primarily contain statistical and historical information.
 * More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search for "FREEDMEN - MARYLAND" in the Subjects search bar to find.

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

For a good explanation of these records, see pages 68-91 of:


 * Byers, Paula K. The African American Genealogical Sourcebook. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc., 1995. (Family History Library Book .)

Slavery Records
Maryland State Archives has prepared a series of online .pdf volumes of county-by-county scans of index cards, certificates of freedom, freedom affidavits, chattel records, histories, slave statistics, and manumission records. These volumes are online under: Slavery Commission.

Patriots of Color is a free database at Archives.com. Includes details about 100 black Marylanders in the Revolutionary War.

Marriage
Some of the African American marriage records from about 1864 to 1875 are listed as cohabitation certificates or acknowledgments of cohabitation. They were sometimes filed with other marriage records. They were sometimes kept separately. Look for these records in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under VITAL RECORDS, PUBLIC RECORDS, or SLAVERY AND BONDAGE.

The Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) was created by the US government to assist former slaves in the southern United States. One of their responsibilities was to record the marriages (past and present) of the former slaves. 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.
 * United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
 * U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867

Archives and Libraries
Reginald F. Lewis Museum 830 E. Pratt St. Baltimore, MD 21202 Phone: 443-263-1800 Email: info.services@lewismuseum.org

McKeldin Library University of Maryland 7649 Library Lane College Park, MD 20742-7011 Phone: (301) 405-0800

The McKeldin Library has an African American section in its Special Collections. See African-American Genealogy to find out more about what is held at the library.