Wills of Slave Owners

Question

Do we have an place that we could post wills of slave owners where named slaves are passed on to inheritors? I have several ancestors who did just that. Might it not be helpful to descendants of slaves to have this resource? Thanks ahead of time for your input.

Answer 1

Yes there's a catagory for that! See slave owners in America that I linked below. You add the catagory for slave owner in a specific county and then make a section in their profile listing the slaves named. If it gets used more I think it could be a really good resource for descenants of slaves looking for their ancestor in a specific county. I've done that for all the ancestor I've found who own slaves. One of my ancestor had more than a few so I created a FSP for them and even hunted down some of the poeple who bought them so I could link their profiles

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Slave_Owners_in_America

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Slaves_of_Thomas_Wier

Comments

didn't even notice this was such an old question.... G2g's algorithim is a little weird...

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I think it's good when an old thread is brought up. It can either provide the answer one is seeking, or in this case, allow someone to correctly answer or clarify a question that may be on people's minds.

Answer 2

Hi Pip.  If you have scans of actual wills, they can be uploaded just like photos to any profile.  Or transcriptions could also be included in the Bio of any profile, either that of the named slave or of the owner, or inheritor.  I agree with you that even if it's not proud history, it's history that should be preserved, and it may be very helpful to descendants of all involved parties.  I'm not aware of any centralized location for just that type of data.

Answer 3

It would be so helpful!!! This is the exact stage of my search I'm in! I have located the slave owner so now I'm trying my best to find the names so I can locate/confirm my great great great grandmother and father and hopefully any other information I can gather as well.

Answer 4

I add this info to the biography of any of my ancestors who did this. It is helpful in a variety of ways.

I do think it would additionally be nice if there was a uniform way to catalog these for easier access.