African American Resources for North Carolina

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United States

African American Genealogy

North Carolina

African American Resources

Introduction

Resources for African American research fall into two periods: pre-and post-Civil War. Post-Civil War research consists of consulting the same record types as non-African-Americans. Pre-Civil War records consist of slave importation declarations, plantation records, emancipation records, apprenticeship bonds for freedmen, North Carolina hiring practices, census records, white family records, church and cemetery records, military records, vital records, and numerous North Carolina court records. African American vital records were usually recorded in separate books for many years.

Online Resources

• North Carolina, Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner Records, 1862-1870, index/images
• North Carolina, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1863-1872, index/images
• U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1863-1878 ($) index and images
• The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution,With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons...., e-book
• Sankfagen Wiki, plantations and slave names
• U.S. Colored Troops Formed in North Carolina
• North Carolina Freedmen Transported to Other States
• Digital Library of American Slavery
• North Carolina Freedmen transported to Other States, Part 1

• NCGenWeb - African American Resources
  
• Access Genealogy: North Carolina African American Genealogy
  
• North Carolina African-American Griots Project
  
• Afrigeneas~African Ancestored Genealogy
• Digital Library on American Slavery - Search for slavery petitions for your ancestors
• BlackPast.org - An online reference guide to African American History
• Slavery and the African American Experience - From the NC Dept. of Cultural Resources
• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
• Black Loyalists: Index to Black Pioneers History - Slaves & freemen who served with the British in Revolutionary War
• The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution - Online book published in 1855
• African American Odyssey -  Library of Congress records and exhibits
• Slavery Era Insurance Registry - Slaves & slaveowners insurance policies throughout the South
• The African American Migration Experience - Lots of resources for your research
• John Hope Franklin Research Center
• Slave Voices from Duke University Special Collections - Highlights & Images of slave records housed at Duke University
• Report on the Alleged Outrages in Southern States - an 1871 Congressional report; see list of NC Counties starting on page XIX
• Report of Services Rendered by Freed People to the US Army in 1862 - from the Eastern NC Digital Library
• The John Hope Franklin Collection on African American History, Duke University Library

History

Number of Slaves in North Carolina
1860	1850	1840	1830	1820	1810	1800	1790
331059	288548	245817	245601	204917	168824	133296	100572

• Crow, Jeffrey J. A History of African Americans in North Carolina.Raleigh, North Carolina: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History. Department of Cultural Resources, 1992. (Family History Library book FHL Collection

For books about African Americans, see the FamilySearch Catalog, using a Place Search under:

NORTH CAROLINA- MINORITIES

NORTH CAROLINA- SLAVERY AND BONDAGE

Research Guides

• McBride, Ransom. "Searching for the Past of the North Carolina Black Family in Local, Regional, and Federal Record Resources," The North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2 (May 1983):66-77. FHL Book 975.6 B2s v. 9.
• Mitchell, Thornton W. Preliminary Guide to Records Relating to Blacks in the North Carolina State Archives. Archives Information Circular 17 (June 1980): 1–17. FHL 975.6 B4a This guide describes the contents and availability of county, state, private, federal, and miscellaneous records.

Resources

Cemeteries

• The African American Cemeteries of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina (Facebook). A community forum for the African American cemeteries of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina. Included are burial sites located in the counties and independent cities in the Tidewater regions of Virginia and North Carolina. Also includes cemetery news from around the United States, and listings in Maryland, New Jersey, and Georgia.

Census Records

Census records are an important source for studying African American families. The 1850 and 1860 mortality schedules list all persons who died in the 12 months prior to the census and include the name, age, residence, state of birth, occupation, and cause of death. From 1870, censuses give every African American's name, age, state of birth, and other information. See:

• African Americans in the 1870 Census. Family Tree Maker’s Family Archives, no.165. Brøderbund Software, Novato, California, 1996. FHL CD-ROM no. 388 This disc does not circulate to Family History Centers. This source indexes 660,000 African Americans in the 1870 federal census of Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, and St. Louis. It includes name, state, county, town, birth date, birthplace, National Archives film number, and page number.
• 1860 Granville County Slave Schedule.Abstracted and explained by Barnetta McGhee White, a complete listing that includes maps showing locations of where the families resided.

Land and Property

Plantation

Slaves are occasionally mentioned in records of plantations described in the following series of booklets:

• Stampp, Kenneth M. A Guide to Records of Ante- Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War: Series F, Selections from the Manuscript Department, Duke University Library. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1991. FHL book 975 H2sm ser. F and FHL book 975 H2sm ser. J. The guide for series F lists records at the Duke University library. The series J guide describes holdings at the library of the University of North Carolina. The guide booklets are not indexed, but, they describe in detail the contents of each microfilm. The Family History Library has microfilms of the North Carolina plantation records described in these guides:
• Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War: Series F, Selections from the Manuscript Department, Duke University Library. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1986–87. FHL film 1549774 (first film)
• Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War: Series J, Selections from the Southern Historical Collection, Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1989–1992. FHL film 1672791 (first of 455)

Also see,Sankofagen Wiki, which contains info on Plantations and the names of many Slaves who lived on them.

Other Records

Cohabitation Records
Slaves were not allowed to legally marry. In 1886 many Cohabitation Certificates were issued and are on microfilm at the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh. This is a great guide that provides information about Cohabitation records and more more: Guide To Research Materials In the North Carolina State Archives. To find Cohabitation records for each county, look under "marriages."

For 1814 to 1866 information about husbands and wives who were former slaves in North Carolina has been published in:

• White, Barnetta McGhee. Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina, County by County. 3 vols. Athens, Georgia.: Iberian Publishing, 1995.At various libraries (WorldCat); FHL CD-ROM no. 2894. This book gives the husband’s and wife’s names when they are given in the records. The records are arranged alphabetically by county.

Military Records

• Patriots of Color. Free database at Archives.com. Includes details about 250 black North Carolinians in the Revolutionary War.
  
• U.S. Colored Troops Formed In North Carolina - Lists of soldiers, Regiments & Regimental histories

Reconstruction Records

Number of Free People of Color in North Carolina
1860	1850	1840	1830	1820	1810	1800	1790
30463	27463	22732	19543	14712	10266	7043	4975

Many black families freed prior to 1820 are listed in: Heinegg, Paul. Free African-Americans of North Carolina and Virginia: Including the Family Histories of More Than 80% of Those Counted as "All Other Free Persons" in the 1790 and 1800 Census. 3rd. ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1993. FHL book 975.6 F2hp This book provides information concerning 281 families and often traces a family to the 1860s. An updated version is available online for free at Free African Americans.com.

Freedman’s Bank

The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company was originally 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 birth date; birthplace; occupation; residences; death information; and names of parents, children, spouses, siblings, and former masters. A database of these records, called the Freedman's Bank Records. Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Family History Library, 2001. Available online at FamilySearch, United States, Freedmans Bank Records, 1865-1874.North Carolina had three branches of this bank at New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington. The signature registers for these branches are found in:

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (Washington, D.C.), 1865–1874. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0816. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1969. Available online at FamilySearch, United States, Freedmans Bank Records, 1865-1874. Contains records for North Carolina.) In the records for each city, depositors are listed in order by account number. The registers of each North Carolina branch are as follows:

New Bern 1869–1874	FHL film 928586 item 1
Raleigh 1868–1874	FHL film 928586 item 2
Wilmington 1869, 1872–1874	FHL film 928586 item 3

The records of the North Carolina branches are published in:

• Reaves, Bill. North Carolina Freedman’s Savings Trust Company Records. Raleigh, North Carolina: North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1992. (Family History Library book FHL book 975.6 F2r. This book has abstracts of the genealogical data from the above records and is indexed.

Other Freedman’s Bureau records include:

• United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of North Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1862–1870. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M843. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1972. FHL film 1616841–1616878 These records give names of freed slaves and sometimes give genealogical information. The records include letters, ration reports, oaths of office, reports of persons hired, court cases (in some cases families are listed), orphans placed as apprentices (sometimes several brothers and sisters are listed), registrars recommended, land and property records, records and reports of claims, reports on freedmen available for work (only a few names of persons are given), and persons who received food.
• United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of North Carolina, 1865–1870. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M844. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1971. FHL film 1695567–1695582 These records contain information about schools built for freed slaves, owners of the schools, teachers in the schools, and teachers’ requests for funds.
• North Carolina Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioners Records, 1862-1870 -These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.
  

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