African American Research
Introduction and Links to Resources
Genealogy Notes
On April 19, 1866, former slaves Benjamin Berry Manson and Sarah Ann Benton White received an official marriage certificate from the Freedmen's Bureau, officially known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
Find out more in Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony: Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Records
More Genealogy Notes
Pre-Civil War Records:
African American historical research can be undertaken in both military and civilian records; however,
the documentation is scattered through a variety of correspondence of government and
private citizens and government reports.
One's success in researching African-American ancestry in the years prior to the
Civil War will depend largely on what one's status was,
slave or free.
Slave records are difficult to locate and
found rarely at NARA.
In Census records, from 1790-1840, only names of the head of
household were provided, along with
the number of slaves.
In 1850 and 1860, the Federal government
took a supplemental slave census, giving the slave owner's name,
and the number of slaves by gender, age, and a designation of black or mulatto.
The names of all free blacks were included in the 1850 and 1860 census.
Beginning in 1870, the census listed the names of all African Americans.
(See
Census Records).
Military Records
Since the time of the American Revolution,
African Americans have volunteered to serve their country in time of war.
Federal records document this from then to modern times. Records of the American Revolution and the
War of 1812 are filled with the services of African Americans.
In addition, the Papers of the Continental Congress cite numerous sources around the discussion of
slavery and slaves serving in the military.
The Civil War was also no exception—official sanction was the difficulty.
The compiled military service records of the men who served with the
United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War number
approximately 185,000, including the officers who were not African American.
This major collection of records rests in the stacks of the National
Archives and Record Administration (NARA). They are little used, and
their content is largely undiscovered.
In the post-Civil War years, genealogy research for African Americans follows the same path as for others, i.e. in use of census, military, and land records. But in addition, the National Archives has records from three post-Civil War Federal agencies which are invaluable for the study of black family life and genealogy. The records were created by these agencies:
- the Commissioners of Claims (Southern Claims Commission)
- the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company
- the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau)
These records are an extremely rich source of documentation for the African American family historian seeking to "bridge the gap" for the transitional period from slavery to freedom, and may provide considerable personal data about the African American family and community. For example, these records may contain information about family relations, marriages, births, deaths, occupations, places of residence, names of slave owners, information concerning black military service, plantation conditions, manumissions, property ownership, migration, and a host of other family-related matters. Read more about researching in these records.
Links to Resources
For more information about African-American research and accessing the records at NARA, see:
See Also:
- African-American History and Federal Records, a special issue of Prologue
- American Slavery and the International Slave Trade, Federal Records available in the National Archives
- The Amistad Case
- The Amistad Case from Teaching with Documents
- "Incited by the Love of Liberty": The Amistad Captives and the Federal Courts, an article from Prologue
- The Amistad Case from Teaching with Documents
- Black Men in Navy Blue
during the Civil War, an article from Prologue
-
Checklist of Records Available for Research on African-American History at NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta)
- Documentation of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Federal Records, an article from Prologue
- Documenting African Americans in the Records of Military Agencies, an article from Prologue
- Documents about African American History online, collections available in the Archival Research Catalog
- Freedmen's Bureau (1865-72)
- Freedmen's Bureau Records, main page
- Freedmen's Bureau Records, an article from Prologue
- The Freedmen's Bureau Preservation Project, an article from Prologue
- Marriage Registers of Freedmen, an article from Prologue
- Sealing the Sacred Bonds of Holy Matrimony,
Freedmen's Bureau Marriage Records, an article from Prologue, Spring 2005
- The Rost Home Colony, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana,
an article on the Freedmen's Bureau which appeared NARA's magazine Prologue.
- Freedmen's Savings and Trust
Company Records, an article from Prologue
See also an introduction to the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company records, given in a speech by NARA staff member at the National Press Club on February 26th, 2001, for the announcement of the Mormon Church's Freedman's Bank Records CD-ROM. A copy of the CD-ROM is available at the Archives I Library or online at http://www.familysearch.org.
- Freedmen's Bureau Records, main page
- Fugitive Slave Case: A Slave Named Stephen
Pembrook, online display
- Photographs of African Americans During World War II
- "Pre-Bureau" Records and Civil War African American Genealogy, "Their... Bedding is wet Their floors are damp", an article from Prologue, Summer 2007
- Records of Military Agencies Relating
to African Americans from the Post-World War I Period
to the Korean War
, Reference Information Paper
- Resources on African American Genealogical Research available in the Archives Library Information Center (ALIC), in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
- Slave Emancipation through the
Prism of Archives Records, an article from Prologue
- Teaching with Documents: Using Accounts of African-Americans from the Holdings of the National Archives, selected documents about slavery and freedom from the Northeast and MidAtlantic Regional Archives.
- Tuskegee Patient Medical Files, listing of over 600 names and file numbers in the Southeast Region's holdings.
- Women: From Slave Women to Free Women: The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era, an article from Prologue
- Other
Web Sites relating to African American Genealogy
- Black History links from the Archives Library Information Center
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