Sources

The database contains numerous sources from around the web. Where legal and easy to achieve, the data has been copied here. Many of these sources are merely indexed, however, with links (where possible) to the original document or source.  We currently host 580,000 records.

Source Types

Runaway Slave Ads

45,000 individual slave records from 39,000 advertisements drawn from 7 sources, including some of our own transcriptions.

  • Cornell’s Freedom on the Move (20,519)
  • Wesleyan’s University’s Runaway Connecticut (356)
  • Maryland State Archives Legacy of Slavery (7,366)
  • University of North Carolina’s Runaway Slave Archive (4,703)
  • Eastern Texas University’s Runaway Slave Project (2,767)
  • Wesleyan’s University’s Runaway Connecticut (356)
  • University of Virginia’s Geography of Slavery (3,712)

Slave Registers and Inventories

1780 Pennsylvania Slave Registers and Subsequent Slave Birth Registers.  Mandated by laws passed in 1780 and 1789, contained here are index to all known extant registers.  What we have here is the complete set of extant registers.  Inventories from the Maryland State Archives.  About 10,000 records covering 1777-1863.

Federal Census & Slave Schedules

Nearly 170,000 records of households with slaves or free persons of color.

  • MD: 1790-1820, all counties.  1850 & 1860 Slave Schedules, all counties.
  • PA: 1790, all counties.  1800, most counties.

You can, of course, search all U.S. census records and Slave Schedules for free at Family Search, though you cannot filter on race.  You can filter on race at Ancestry, which charges for access.

Louisiana Slave Database

Dr. Gwedolyn Graham read over 100,000 slave records as part of her research into slave values.  She has graciously made this database freely downloadable on the web.  It was not designed as a tool for genealogists and there are about 100 possible fields for each record, so displaying the search results is a little challenging.  It is, however, a huge database holding a wealth of data.  Period covered: 1718-1821.

African Voyages Names Database

Researching ship manifest records, many of them in the Caribbean and England, this project provides a very unique source for original African names for slaves brought to the Caribbean and U.S.  They make this database of nearly 100,000 records freely downloadable by anyone.

Manumissions, Sales, Free Negro Lists, and Freedom Certificates

Culled from the Maryland State Archives and the Virginia State Library, three different data sets comprising about 80,000 records.  The VA Library makes it impossible to link directly to their records.  Searches return records from this source will have a source_id field.  If you search their site and enter that source_id, you should find the original record.  About 100,000 records.

Tax Lists

A very small data set of tax lists from Cumberland County, PA, spanning 1765-1811.

Miscellaneous Slave Records

Small data sets such as Petitions to Remain in the (Virginia) Commonwealth, and Petitions for Reenslavement, both from the Virginia State Library.

Sources In General

North Carolina State University Runaway Slave Advertisements

Over 2300 runaway slave ads covering sixteen states, with a focusing mainly on LA, VA, NC, and MD. Indexed here in its entirety, with links to the original images at UNC.

Maryland State Archives Legacy of Slavery

Wonderful site containing many primary sources documents on slavery, all indexed and searchable. What we have indexed here are their runaway slave ads, manumissions, Federal Slave Schedules for Maryland (1850 and 1860), freedom certificates, census data for 1830 and 1840, and manumissions. Approximately 150,000 records and, where ever possible, we have links back to the original document at the MSA.

Runaway Connecticut, Hosted by Wesleyan University

Runaway slave ads from CT, MA, and NY. Just over 850 records, with links back to the original source.

Freedom on The Move

A massive crowd-sourced database of runaway slave ads hosted by Cornell University. Over 20,000 ads covering ten states with links to the original, but you must first register (free) for a username.

Geography of Slavery

Hosted by the University of Virginia.  A searchable database of runaway slave ads.

Texas Runaway Slave Project, Eastern Texas Digital Archives

Just under 3,000 runaway slave ads focused exclusively on Texas with links to the original.

New York Slavery Records Index

Very nice collection of indexed documents hosted by CUNY’s John Jay College of Law.  None of it is indexed here as they have a very restrictive copyright, but the site can easily be searched directly.

Freedman’s Bureau Records

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is working on transcribing and indexing this massive data set which will be hosted by FamilySearch.  None of it is available on this site.

The Virginia State Library

Hosts a massive collection of original documents on slavery.  Manumissions, lists of free Negroes, freedom certificates, tax lists, Civil War conscription lists, etc.  It uses a full text search, so you cannot search on specific fields like owner name, or slave name.

Yale University Slave Resources

An excellent list of Internet resources on researching slavery.