African American Research

Highlights From Our Collection

Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist, Author & Orator, ca. 1879

Tuskegee Syphilis Study Memorandum, 11/16/1972

First African American Navy Nurse, Phyllis Mae Dailey

Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act: Act of August 6, 1965

"Washer Woman" by Hale A. Woodruff

Introduction to Research and Links to Resources

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.

Post-Civil War:

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

Enlarge

Harriet Tubman, Portrait by Robert Savon

National Archives Identifier 559120 Item from Collection H: Harmon Foundation Collection, 1922 - 1967

For more information about African-American research and accessing the records at NARA, see:

• Guide to Black History

• Black Family Research: Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives
   
• African American Reference Reports
   
• African Americans in the Federal Census, 1790-1930, a Powerpoint slideshow

See Also:

• African American Records on Microfilm at NARA's Atlanta Location
   
• 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
     
• Beaufort (Outbound) Slave Manifests, RG 36
   
• Black Men in Navy Blue during the Civil War, an article from Prologue
   
• Charleston (Inbound) Slave Manifests, RG 36
   
• Checklist of Records Available for Research on African-American History at the National Archives at Atlanta
   
• Civil Rights
   
• Civil Liberties Cases held in the National Archives and Records Administration, 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
   
• 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.
     
• Fugitive Slave Case: A Slave Named Stephen Pembrook, online display
   
• The Modern Civil Rights Movement: Federal Records in the National Archives and Records Administration
   
• The Modern Civil Rights Movement: Federal Records in NARA's Great Lakes Region and in Related Archival Institutions, Records of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (RG 276)
   
• 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.
  • Ethnic History and Genealogies in ALIC
  • Genealogical CD-ROMS available in ALIC
     
• Researching Slavery and Freedom in the National Archives at Philadelphia
   
• Slave Emancipation through the Prism of Archives Records, an article from Prologue
   
• Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels Filed at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1807-1860
   
• 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.
   
• Women: From Slave Women to Free Women: The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era, an article from Prologue
   
• Black History links from the Archives Library Information Center

Historical Documents

• Voting Rights Act
   
• Brown v. Board of Education
   
• District of Columbia Emancipation
   
• Emancipation Proclamation
   
• Abolition of Slavery
   
• Letter from Jackie Robinson