Records of 183,000 Enslaved Individuals Found in America

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African Americans can now trace their lineage back to slaves to aid their fight for reparations

Now, a newly released database of historic records may help fill in some of those gaps. This week, Ancestry published 38,000 newspaper articles containing the names, ages, physical descriptions and locations of more than 183,000 enslaved people in America.

The newly published documents, which cover the years between 1788 and 1867, could help Black families across the country who are interested in tracing their roots. Some Black Americans appeared on census dating back to the first of its kind, but they weren't included holistically, or even as citizens until 1870. 

Records from before that year can be scarce, though not unlikely to come across. “Ancestry tracing often leads to dead ends, uncertainty and more questions, especially when it comes to identifying the enslaved,” as Tracy Scott Forson wrote for Smithsonian earlier this year.

As such, to find information from before 1870, Black families often need documents other than census records—which the new Ancestry collection might be able to help with. More broadly, the documents could also provide historians with new insights into chattel slavery in the U.S. Source: full article