The Core Research Principle — Research the Enslaver to Find the Enslaved
Enslaved people rarely created records in their own names before 1865. Their lives are documented primarily in the records of the people who enslaved them. The fundamental strategy: identify the full family history of the slaveholder (parents, siblings, children, in-laws), then track all their property records for names of enslaved people. Begin with the 1870 census — the first to name all formerly enslaved people — and work backward through the slaveholder's records.
I. Federal Records & Census — Start Here
FamilySearch.org — The Essential Starting Point
The single most critical free platform for this research. FamilySearch hosts:
- 1850 and 1860 federal slave schedules (Collections 1420440 and 3161105) — list enslaved people by age, sex, and color under each slaveholder's name. Owner names are searchable. No personal names of the enslaved appear in most records.
- The 1870 census — the first in which all formerly enslaved people appear by name — fully searchable and the critical bridge backward in time
- 32 separate Freedmen's Bureau collections (1865–1872) — labor contracts, marriage records, hospital records, ration lists, and complaints registers, all of which frequently name both formerly enslaved persons and their former owners
- Many records include family details, birth and death dates, previous owners, and current residences
Documented Case — Jacob & Menemia McCoy, Wilmington NC, 1866
Jacob and Menemia McCoy, formerly enslaved, approached the Wilmington NC bureau office in 1866 to regain custody of their conjoined twin daughters, Millie and Christine, who had previously been the property of Mary A. Smith of Spartanburg, SC. This case is documented in the NC Freedmen's Bureau field office records — illustrating the depth of family information these records contain. The NARA microfilm publication M1909 (78 rolls) contains NC-specific records. Source: BRFAL NC field office records, NARA RG 105.
II. Major Scholarly Databases
III. The Atlantic Slave Trade Databases
IV. Freedom on the Move — Runaway Slave Advertisements
Enslavers placed "runaway ads" in newspapers from the earliest days of colonial slavery through the Civil War. These ads — designed as wanted posters for people whose only crime was seeking freedom — accidentally preserved more detailed personal information about enslaved individuals than almost any other record type. Each ad typically recorded the fugitive's name, approximate age, height, skin color, clothing, scars or identifying marks, skills and trades, languages spoken, speech patterns, family connections, and suspected destinations. By 1865, an estimated 200,000 such notices had appeared in American newspapers.
Documented Case — Moses & Zilphey, Montgomery, Alabama, 1825
In June 1825, enslaver James Goodson placed an ad in the Southern Advocate for two fugitives, Moses and Zilphey — likely a married couple. The ad revealed they had first fled a year earlier, traveled more than 75 miles north before being captured and jailed in Shelby County — and had now escaped again. The ad offered $50 for their capture. A single ad yielded: names of both enslaved individuals, owner's name, jail location, geographic range of movement, and approximate date of an earlier escape attempt. Source: Freedom on the Move database.
V. "Information Wanted" — Ads Placed by Formerly Enslaved People
After emancipation, formerly enslaved people placed their own newspaper advertisements in Black newspapers and churches, seeking family members separated during slavery. These ads run from the 1830s through the 1920s and name both the formerly enslaved people and, critically, their former owners as geographic reference points.
| Database | Records | Coverage | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Seen — informationwanted.org | 5,093+ ads | Philadelphia Christian Recorder, New Orleans Black Republican, Nashville Colored Tennessean, Charleston SC Leader, Free Men's Press (Galveston TX), Cincinnati Colored Citizen. 1830s–1922. | Free — informationwanted.org |
| Lost Friends — HNOC New Orleans | Extensive | "Lost Friends" column in New Orleans Southwestern Christian Advocate, 1879–early 1900s. Searchable by name, city, state, county. | Free — hnoc.org/lostandfound |
VI. WPA Slave Narratives (1936–1938)
Between 1936 and 1938, the Federal Writers' Project collected over 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery from people who had survived it — the largest collection of primary source materials from individuals who lived under American slavery anywhere in the world. Collected in 17 states. Fully digitized and freely searchable at the Library of Congress. The NC volumes are particularly important for this lineage.
Research Caution — Using WPA Narratives Critically
Most interviewers were white Southern women operating under Jim Crow conditions in the 1930s. Formerly enslaved people — then in their 80s and 90s, having lived most of their lives under racial terror — often gave cautious answers to avoid trouble. In one documented case, 90-year-old Liza McGhee of Marshall County, Mississippi was found "hesitant about talking freely as she feared the white people were planning to enslave her again." Always cross-reference narrative details against documentary records. The people being interviewed were typically children during slavery, so accounts reflect what they directly experienced or what parents told them.
VII. North Carolina–Specific Free Sources
VIII. Named Individuals — Documented from Primary Sources
| Enslaved Person(s) | Owner | Date | Location | Record Type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy (shoemaker, left-handed) | Thomas Jefferson | 1771 | Albemarle County, VA | Runaway Ad | FOTM / Chronicling America |
| Ona (Oney) Judge (Martha Washington's lady's maid) | George Washington | 1796 | Philadelphia, PA | Runaway Ad | Philadelphia Gazette / LOC; gave interviews in 1840s |
| Moses & Zilphey (probable couple) | James Goodson | June 1825 | Montgomery, AL | Runaway Ad | FOTM Database |
| Patience Green (age 12 at sale) | Dick Christian | 1859 | Richmond, VA | Information Wanted Ad | Last Seen / Chicago Appeal |
| John William Harris (age 14) | Dick Christian | Post-1865 | Richmond, VA | Information Wanted Ad | Last Seen archive |
| Lydia, William, Allen, Parker (children of Betsy) | John Petty | Pre-1865 | Franklin County, TN | Information Wanted Ad | Christian Recorder / Last Seen |
| Betsy (Elizabeth Williams, wife of Sandy Rucker) | John Petty / Marshal Stroud | Pre-1865 | TN → AR | Information Wanted Ad | Last Seen / informationwanted.org |
| Millie & Christine McCoy (conjoined twins, born 1851 NC) | J.P. Smith / Mary A. Smith | 1851–1866 | NC / Spartanburg, SC | Freedmen's Bureau Record | BRFAL — NARA RG 105 |
| Jacob & Menemia McCoy (parents of above) | Mary A. Smith, Spartanburg SC | 1866 | Wilmington, NC | Freedmen's Bureau Complaint | NC Field Office Records / NARA |
| Belinda Sutton (petitioned for reparations) | Estate of Isaac Royall | 1783 | Massachusetts | Legislative Petition | Enslaved.org / AANB |
| ~91,491 named Africans from captured slave ships | Various ship captains | 19th Century | Atlantic Ocean | Royal Navy Prize Court Records | Slave Voyages — African Names DB |
| Hannah Crasson | [Owner gave slaves to children] | Interview 1937 (slavery pre-1865) | North Carolina | WPA Narrative | LOC / National Humanities Center |
| Charlie Rigger (age 85) | Floyd Malone | Interview 1937 | Arkansas | WPA Narrative | LOC Slave Narratives |
IX. Recommended Research Order
- 11870 Federal Census (FamilySearch, free)
First census naming all formerly enslaved people. Build a list of all Black individuals in the target county. Note surnames shared with white households. Examine 10 pages before and after your ancestor's entry — neighbors and nearby families are strong candidates for former enslavers.
- 21860 Slave Schedule (FamilySearch Collection 3161105)
Find white households listing enslaved people matching the age, sex, and color of 1870 individuals. Match ages: a 35-year-old in 1870 = age 25 in 1860. Push back to 1850 Slave Schedule (Collection 1420440) as well.
- 3DiscoverFreedmen.org — Freedmen's Bureau
Search both the formerly enslaved person's name AND the identified owner's name. Labor contracts, marriage records, and ration records often explicitly name former owners. Free, keyword searchable across all collections.
- 4People Not Property (NC) and NC Cohabitation Records
For NC-rooted research: search county-level slave deeds for the owner identified in Step 2. Cohabitation records may name the owner and confirm slavery-era family ties.
- 5Freedom on the Move (freedomonthemove.org)
Enter the owner's name and/or county to find any runaway ads they placed. These ads may name the enslaved person and contain physical descriptions unavailable anywhere else.
- 6WPA Narratives for the Relevant County (loc.gov)
Search the relevant state and county volumes for the owner's surname or the county name. Surviving narratives may document the specific plantation or household.
- 7Enslaved.org and DLAS (dlas.uncg.edu)
Search for cross-linked records connecting individuals across multiple source types. DLAS Petitions project is particularly valuable — it indexes petitions by slaveholder surname and often names individual enslaved people.
- 8Freedman's Bank Records (ancestry.com/freedmens, free)
Accounts opened 1865–1874 may identify the former enslaver by name and document family relationships not preserved elsewhere. The richest source of family constellation data from the immediate post-emancipation period.
- 9Information Wanted Ads (informationwanted.org)
Search for the formerly enslaved person's name AND the family member they sought AND the former owner's name as a geographic reference point. Can identify both the person's name and their last known location.
- 10DNA Testing to Break Through Brick Walls
Autosomal DNA can identify genetic cousins who may have documented trees connecting to yours. If possible, ask a documented descendant of the proposed slaveholding family to take a DNA test — shared long DNA segments can confirm the connection.