1860 Large SlaveholdersCan search by Surnames, as well as counties. |
Free non-whites were identified as blacks and mullatoes and made up 2-3 percent of the population. Tax lists indicated: 1751=37; 1763=48; 1774=59. They were taxed for their wives and all children over 12 years of age. (White women were untaxed and white males were not taxable until 16 years of age) Some free Negroes reported slaves in the 1830 census, but by 1860 these slave owners were non-existent and only 29 actually owned any real or personal property.
African-American population of Bertie County was in the majority by the 1800 and continued to increase. Although most of these were living on the large plantations, the 1790 census does show that almost half of the county included slaves within their household.
Religion was important at the turn of the century with the Second Great Awakening, and many black churches were founded at that time. HISTORIC AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES IN BERTIE COUNTY
Free Negro orphans were frequently apprenticed. (Bertie County Apprentice Indentures 1750-1790, stack file no. C.R. 010.101.7- Raleigh)
Resource: Bertie County: A Brief History by Alan D. Watson. NC Archives and History, 1982.
1860 - Slave Schedule (partial)
Plan to spend some time at this site. These family groups are well documented and contain lots of other surnames within the grouping.
It has a search engine, so just feed in your surname, and you'll locate all the references. Or you can just browse through the alphabetical lists. You can also just type in "Bertie" which will bring up the special sections which he includes on the Bertie County 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1820 surnames of free persons of color.
Slave history and genealogy have suffered from inadequate attention to many of the records which tell us most about the identities and lives of North Carolina's slave population. When records from the slavery period have been extracted and published, they have been mainly the records which are most useful to researchers looking for free persons; and those records tend not to be the most fruitful sources of slave information. In many other cases, published extracts of records have omitted the names of the slaves present in those records. Legal records preserved in our county courthouses (and, in some cases, at the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh) are, in fact, the most numerous and most easily accessible of all pre-1865 records, and are the richest source of primary slave data. They deserve careful and methodical examination, analysis, and extraction.
There is no such thing as a "slave record" in the courthouses of North Carolina, if, by slave record, we mean a court document whose purpose was to record the names or activities of slaves for their own sake. Legal records were about the personal rights and property rights of free persons, and slaves had no personal or property rights. The fundamental relationship between free persons and legal records, therefore, was different from the relationship between slaves and legal records. Slaves do not appear as parties to any lawsuit, marriage, contract, deed, bond, or court action (except in rare cases as defendants in criminal trials). They did not make wills or inherit property. They are not named in the tax digests. They do not appear on any jury list, land lottery, poor school roster, or voters list. And yet, tens or hundreds of thousands of individual slaves are named and described in the court records of North Carolina, their lives inseparably intermingled with the lives of free citizens with whom they lived.
The historian or genealogist researching legal records for our North Carolina ancestors who lived as slaves must take a different approach to that task from the approach taken toward records of free persons living in North Carolina before 1865:
A note on extracting and indexing genealogical data on slaves. Genealogists researching free persons recognize that, without the combination of first, middle and last names by which free persons were legally known in different legal records, tracing free ancestors would be virtually impossible. Imagine how useless an index or extracted record would be if it only contained first names! Full names allow us to somewhat confidently connect persons from one record with the same persons in another record. Slaves in legal records also have more than first names. A slave's legal identity was the combination of his/her first name and the full name of his/her owner. This combination of slave's first name and owner's full name can be as effective as the name of any free person in tracing slaves from record to record. It is essential whenever extracting slave data about slaves that their owners' full names, as given in the record, also be extracted. When indexing any record which includes slaves, always index slaves by owners' full name (in the usual manner of last, first, middle) followed by the slaves' names, for example:
(Ruffin, John) Violet
One of the greatest challenges in tracing slave ancestors is to trace individual slaves back through former owners, because (working from more recent records to older records) the identifying "tag" of the owners' names usually changes without a clue. A slave typically appears in the records of an owner's legal affairs with no indication of where he or she came from. This is similar to the dilemma faced by researchers of free persons in trying to trace a married woman's ancestry when marriage (or other) records do not exist to show her maiden name. Just as marriage records are indispensable in tracing free persons, records of sale or transfer (as in estate sales, distributions of estates, and bills of sale) are essential to trace individual slaves from owner to owner. In many cases, a particular enslaved person with multiple owners, or even several generations of slaves, could be traced from our oldest records forward, if all existing records were thoroughly extracted and indexed.
African-American Population in Bertie
African-American Historical Leaders
Afrigeneas Links
Archives in Raleigh
Beginning your Research
Cemeteries in Bertie County
Census, Slave and Mortality Schedules
Churches
Civil War Colored Troops
Court Records
Freedman Bureau
Freedmen Searchable Database by by Paul Heinegg
Historic Homes (Source for possible slave owners)
IndenturesJan 1866-June 1866 N.C
Mailing Lists
Query Posting
Railroad Workers
Slaveholders
Southern Claims Commission
African-American Population in Bertie County
Bertie County (around 1750) was one of the most densely populated in North Carolina. The increasing population from that time period onward was largely due to the numbers of African-American slaves. These first had been brought by the Virginians who settled in Albermarle province, but by the early 1700's slaves were imported directly into Bertie County (probably from West Africa). They made up 25% of the population by the 1740s. (Tax digests indicated taxes levied on all blacks at least 12 years of age as well as white males over 16 years of age)Nov 29, 1763. Negro boy named Jacob, aged seven years. Bound to
Aaron Ellis. Cordwainer. Signers: Thomas Pugh, Aaron Ellis. Witness: John
Johnston
Wynett Haun's Court Minutes of Bertie County provide a source of information.
Vol VI. 1788-1792
"Aug 1789. A bill of sale for a negroe boy named Daniel from Edward Turner to William Gray was proved in due form of law by the oath of Jas Turner one of the subscribing witnesses and ordered to be registered."
Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia by Paul Heinegg
Result of searching for "Bertie"
Census Listing for 1820 Search for Bertie or specific surname.
It is this author's opinion that a comprehensive program of extracting, organizing, and indexing all legal records from the slavery period for each North Carolina county (and, eventually, for the entire United States) is long overdue. The old court records of most North Carolina counties have not even been thoroughly inventoried. I encourage historical societies to consider such projects in cooperation with the official custodians of their county records.
Written by David Paterson for Georgia Research and adapted for North Carolina.
Tracing your Slave Ancestor - A Study
Contributed by: Cathy Farris
Slaveholders in Bertie County
Devereaux Plantation |
Tom Blake has done partial transcriptions of the 1860 slave census for Bertie County. This is part of a project of indexing the names of larger 1860 slaveholders and matching the surnames with African Americans on the 1870 census. Be sure to read his analysis.
Thomas BARKER John DREW Whitmel HILL Matthew ING(S) Samuel JOHNSTON William W. JOHNSTON John LENNOX David MEREDITH Titus MOORE Greenberry MULLIN Cullen POLLOCK Francis PUGH Thomas PUGH Samuel SMITH David STONE Lewis THOMPSON Elizabeth TUNSTALL
Noah B. Hinton
Josiah Holley
John E. Wood
Stark Armistead
Lewis Bond
Cullen Capehart
William M. Clark
John Devereus
Robert A. Jones
Thomas Norfleet
Ralph Outlaw
William Pugh
Peter Rascoe
Thomas Speller
William T. Thompson
Lewis Williams
Original Jesse Garrett will which I obtained from the NC Archives. The will is dated 13 Oct 1796 and proved Jun 1797. Wife is shown as Rachael, sons Jesse, David, Jacob, James, Timothy, John and Thomas, daughters Celia Eley, Millie, Penny, Mary and Elizabeth with son-in-law James Cherry (?) as sole executor. [Mille may be the wife of James Cherry as Penny, Mary and Elizabeth were minors and Celia may have been married to an Eley.] [The slaves were Toney, Ben, Crummell, Jude, Venus, little Jude, Jack, Jerry, Silus, Abram, Cesar, Flora, Issac, Valley, Kate and Ester. I hope I have read the names correctly.] Contributed by: Virginia Jones VaJones@aol.com
Askew, Wilie I. 43 slaves Boyle, Mrs. M.C. 4 slaves Branch, John Sr 19 Bunch, Jermiah, Sr 23 Butlar, Monroe 5 Capehart, B.A. 43 Cherry, Jos. O 5 Craig, Andrew 14 Dewby, Ward (estate) 24 Floyd, Mary (estate) 1 Falk, William K 22 Floyd, Samuel 25 Gurley, Will P 11 Gray, William S 6 Gray, George 17 Hassell, A.H. 6 Hensberry, Peter 8 Hoggard, Will H 33 Lee, John H. 10 Mitchell, John 2 Mitchell, Lawrence 2 Mizillis, Mora L 2 Powell, Will R 2 Pruden, Will S 3 Rascoe, John T 1 Rhodes, Nezerath 7 Riddick, Thos W 53 Roulhac, Frances L. Miss 58 Ryan, Emely L. Miss 51 Sheperd, Jno S 2 Smioth, Dr. R.H. 21 Smith, Stark B. 3 Smithwick, Sam W. 38 Spellings 2 Spivey, Jos B 5 Sutton, William W. 16 Taylor, David E 3 Taylor, Jon S 24 Thomas, L. Capt 1 Thomas, Miss Sarah 5 Ward, Mrs. Sarah 8 Webb, S.S. 2 Whitaker, Jno.E. 7 White, Stanley 6 Wilson, Turner 35 Winston, P.H. 33 Wish, Mrs. Elizabeth 26 Wynns, Miss Nancy 4 Total Slaves for the District: 946
Civil War Role
Bertie County Military Page Lists servicemen from Bertie County. Work done by Gerald Thomas
Role of the African-American in the Civil War History of African Americans in the Civil War
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The following are some known African-American Cemeteries to check out.
I need MORE of these LINKS, or if you have copies of these lists, please let me know. Virginia Crilley varcsix@hot.rr.com
The boxes are in chronological order and there is no volume with the records alphabetized.
Sample of information from Box number 6. A young man who is doing his thesis on Slave insurrection in
Northeastern NC recommended several sources.
Under aged children who were not or could not be supported by their parents
or were orphans were apprenticed by Freedmen's Bureau officials to persons
who would be responsible for their upbringing and welfare.
Included with this Index are notes from the mothers of certain apprentices
giving permission for their children to be bound out and notes explaining
why some children who were not orphans were bound out. A sample follows:
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To see the original records, ask the staff in the research room. They will
direct you to the office where you can get a researcher's ID card (which
allows you to enter the reading room where original records are viewed) and
to the office that has the complete index of the Freedman's Bureau records
(where you can fill out a form indicating which records that you want pulled
so that you can look at them); both of these offices are open from 9 to 5.
They will not pull original records if they have already been microfilmed,
but the index identifies the records that have been microfilmed and gives the
microfilm number.African-American Cemeteries in Bertie County
Visit our Bertie Co Archives Page which is endeavoring to list all the cemeteries within the County.
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Census, Tax Lists, Slave and Mortality Schedules
Virtually every county existing in 1860 has a body of documents referred to by the State Archives as "Slave Papers." These papers may include civil and criminal actions papers relating to slaves, bills of sale for slaves, petitions to sell slaves, bonds for slaves permitted to carry arms, petitions for emancipation and emancipation bonds, patrol records, depositions and other records concerning runaway slaves, permits for slaves to works, inquests into the death of slaves, etc. These records are designated for some counties as records of slaves and free persons of color and containing records dating through the Reconstruction period
SLAVE PAPERS
Census Records
Beginning in 1790 Census, free blacks are listed by name but slaves were only indicated by total numbers. African-Americans were not listed by name on Census records until 1870. Be aware that some published Census did not contain African-Americans, so be sure to check the microfilm.
Slave Schedules
In 1850 and 1860. Separate Slave Schedules were tallied for slave-owning states. They listed the number of males and females in specific age groupings listed by slave owner's name.
Tax Digest
Tax
Lists -1757
Consult this list to see other Slaves listed
Southern Claims Commission
"THE SOUTHERN CLAIMS COMMISSION: A SOURCE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN ROOTS," by Reginald Washington (Ancestry Magazine July, 1999)
Excerpted from his article in the National Archives' Prologue, Reginald
Washington examines the Southern Claims Commission - a resource for African
American research that chronicles the events of post-Civil War property
compensation for emancipated slaves and others.
Slave Records of Bertie-Archives - Raleigh
About a year ago there was a theft of some of the slave records
of Bertie County (they were found at an auction) and they are now being kept (12 boxes) behind the archivist's (Mr. Boyd's)desk and in an office.
It had file folders in it from 1744-1815
Call # 010.928.6
They contain all sorts of information.
William and Mary Journal, Series 3, Vol 37 Jan 1980
Slave Rebelliousness and Social Conflict in NC 1775-1802.
The Great Class,Conflict, and Consensus by Strickland
The Great Revival and Insurrectionary reviews the Church's part in slave insurrection. Indentures - N.C.
Index to Indentures of Apprentices made in North Carolina between Jan.
1866 - June 1866
Lumberton, N. C. June 29, 1866
This is to certify that I am the mother of Mary aged 12 years, Aleck aged 10
years and Jerry aged 8 years and that I freely give my consent to have them
bound to R. G. Ashley. The father of these three children is in Alabama and
it is for their benefit that they are bound to Mr. Ashley. I further certify
that I am not able to feed and clothe them and give them any education.
Martha (X) Hill
Two typical indenture agreements have been transcribed for those not
familiar with these documents, one an agreement between Mary A. Bryant of
Robeson County and Helen, a 15 year old colored orphan; and the other
between J. L. Motley of Casswell County and Lucy, a 9 year old orphan who
was bound out until the age of 21.
Christine CharityCourt Records
Wills
Consulting Wills or if the slave owner died without a will, the Inventory of Estates, show the division of the slaves.
Placing Your Query
It is helpful to fellow-researchers if you mention that you are looking for an African-American ancestor. This points them in the right direction to share information.
If you find OTHER places that are a big help, please share them.
Join a Mailing List
There are several Mailing Lists which you would find helpful!
Railroad Slave Workers in NC
North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal. Vol. XXV, No. 1, Feb 1999
(Newport News Main Street Library, Newport News, Va....I am sure other
genealogical/research libraries carry this Journal.)
Slaves Hired by the North Carolina Rail Road 1862 and 1864.
transcribed by Grace Turner.
"Editor's Introduction: Chartered in 1849 the NC Railroad was substantially
complete in 1856. It ran from Goldsboro (via Raliegh, Greensboro and
Salisbury) to Charlotte. The company sent their records to the NC Archives
in 1952. Volume 81 is identified as "NC Rail Road Slave Book, 1862-1864,
Officers Agents Records 1863-1872."
The books contains information for the following categories: Date, Owner's
Name, Name of Slave, Where at Work, Amount, How paid, Post Office. Ms.
Turner supplies the information for 3 categories: Owners Name; Name of Slave
and Post Office. For the most part slaves are identified by first names
only, but there are some identified with a Surname.
Somebody Knows My Name, ("Marriages of Freed
People in
North Carolina County by County"),
Volume 3, Pages 914, 944 by Barnetta
McGhee White, Ph.D.
- - Iberian Publishing Company - Athens, GA - 1995.Freedman's Bureau
Freedman's Bureau
My understanding is that the Freedman's Bureau microfilms have a subset of
what is contained in the original Freedman's Bureau records. Certain record
groups have been microfilmed, while others have not. Some labor contract
records for certain states are included on the microfilm -- check the
description of what is on each roll.