African-American Resources for Virginia

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Surnames/tags: Virginia black_heritage

US Black Heritage Project Home Page

African-American Genealogy Resources

African-American Resources by State

US Black Heritage Project Virginia Team

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Links to online resources about black heritage in Virginia:

Contents 1 History and General Resources 2 Resources by Location: Counties 2.1 Accomack County 2.2 Albemarle County 2.3 Amelia County 2.4 Augusta County 2.5 Botetourt County 2.6 Buchanan County 2.7 Campbell County 2.8 Caroline County 2.9 Charles City County 2.10 Charlotte County 2.11 Dinwiddie County 2.12 Fairfax County 2.13 Gloucester County 2.14 Goochland County 2.15 Halifax County 2.16 Hanover County 2.17 Henry County 2.18 King George County 2.19 Isle of Wight County 2.20 Loudoun County 2.21 Louisa County 2.22 Madison County 2.23 Mathews County 2.24 Mecklenburg County 2.25 New Kent County 2.26 Orange County 2.27 Prince Edward County 2.28 Russell County 2.29 Southampton County 2.30 Spotsylvania County 2.31 Surry County 2.32 Washington County 2.33 Westmoreland County 2.34 Wise Count 2.35 Wythe County 3 Resources by Location: Independent Cities 3.1 Richmond, Virginia 4 Resources by Location: Regions 4.1 Appalachia 5 Slavery Resources

History and General Resources

• Library of Virginia
• Virginia Landmarks - Rosemont of Powhatan
• Historic Register of African American Places in Virginia
• Guide to African American Manuscripts
• Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative
• Virginia Open Data Portal
• Birth Records HE-PAZ (Virginia) 1853-1866 by Owner last name, Informant or Overseer
• Cohabitation records of Virginia
• Gist Settlements of Virginia and Ohio for Freed Slaves of Samuel Gist Samuel Gist owned approximately 1200 slaves in Amherst, Goochland, and Hanover counties, Virginia. When Gist died in 1815, he still owned over 500 slaves.
• Slaves of Samuel Gist of Goochland, Hanover and Louisa counties in Virginia
• Justice Prevails Descendants of enslaved people at James Madison's historic plantation win bruising battle to tell their stories.
• The 1850 mortality schedule search tool on FamilySearch - Virginia
• State and County Maps of Virginia, including an Interactive Map of Virginia County Formation History
• Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Virginia
• 2023 Map of Virginia counties
• History of the American Negro (list of prominent Black Virginians)
• African-Americans in the Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Library of Virginia)

Resources by Location: Counties

Accomack County

• Census of white and colored poplulation of Accomack County, v. 1-2, 1864 [NARA M1913 roll 74] available at FamilySearch. See it in the list of Freedmen's Bureau records from the Drummondtown field office.

Albemarle County

• See: African American Resources for Albemarle County, Virginia

Amelia County

• Amelia County Free Negro Registers at Library of Virginia
  • Amelia County (Va.) Free Negro Register and Register of Estrays, 1791-1835: https://rosetta.virginiamemory.com/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3499505
  • Amelia County (Va.) Free Negro Register and Surveyor of Roads Book, 1835-1855: https://rosetta.virginiamemory.com/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3499789
  • Amelia County (Va.) Free Negro Register and Freedmen's Marriage License Book, 1855-1869: https://rosetta.virginiamemory.com/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3500004

• Slave Owner, George Ragsdale in Amelia county VA deed books: On the bottom of the right hand page, there is an emancipation entry, and another on the next page. Both are George Ragsdale (deceased) emancipating what appears to be two families (husband, wife, and children) per George Ragsdale's Will
• George Ragsdale's Family Search profile

Augusta County

• The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War. Includes a Free Black registry.

Botetourt County

• 1803 List of Free Blacks in Botetourt County
• DigiTool Results

Buchanan County

• See: African American Resources for Buchanan County, Virginia

Campbell County

• Free Negro and Slave Records, 1764-1864 Lynchburg, VA

Caroline County

• See: African American Resources for Caroline County, Virginia
• Slaves Named in Caroline County Wills

Charles City County

• Free Negroes and Mulattoes database
• 1850 Charles City County, VA Mortality Schedule
• 1850 Charles City, Virginia Census, Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
• 1860 Charles City County, Virginia Mortality Schedule
• Enslaved ancestor file (no primary sources, but a lot of information to help lead to primary sources)

Charlotte County

• Guide to African American Manuscripts; image 92 of 205 - William Wirt Henry

• William Wirt Henry (1831-1900) - William Wirt Henry maintained an account book, 1857–1881. The first few pages of the volume contain a list of slaves belonging to Henry, with information on their ages, children, and the means by which Henry acquired them. After the Civil War, Henry used the book in part to record the employment of freedmen and women on his plantation in Charlotte County (section 21). An undated draft of an essay by Elizabeth Watkins (Henry) Lyons called "The Turning of the Sifter" concerns Huck, Ceasar, Lucinda, and African American plantation life at Red Hill, Charlotte County (section 38). An undated letter, ca. 1810, of Dr. Robert Burton to a Dr. Fontaine concerns the medical treatment of slaves and includes prescriptions (section 52).

Dinwiddie County

• The Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish, Virginia, 1720-1789 (Dinwiddie County, Virginia - lists many slave births from this time period, can see most by searching using the keyword "negro" or "slave")

Fairfax County

• See: African-American Resources in Fairfax County, Virginia

Gloucester County

• 1860 Gloucester County, Virginia Mortality Schedule

Goochland County

• Goochland County Free Negro and SLave Records 1726-1867]
• The Douglas Register: A detailed record of births, marriages and deaths kept by the Rev. William Douglas from 1750 to 1797 in Goochland County; also an index of Goochland wills. Tip: to find references to enslaved people and free people of color, use search words negro, negroe, negroes, mulattoe, mulattoes. Also available here: The Douglas Register
• Slaves of Samuel Gist of Goochland, Hanover and Louisa counties in Virginia.

Halifax County

• Halifax County Largest Slave Owners
• Marable Family Slave Owners Extensive sources and biographical information

Hanover County

• The Hanover County Black Heritage Society]
• Slaves of Samuel Gist of Goochland, Hanover and Louisa counties in Virginia.

Henry County

• See African American Resources for Henry County, Virginia

King George County

Isle of Wight County

• Virginia, Isle of Wight County Records, 1634-1951 Slavery records Free Negro registration and Emancipation records
• The African American Experience in Isle of Wight

Loudoun County

• Black History, Historic Records & Deed Research, Clerk of the Circuit Court (Loudoun County, Virginia) - includes multiple PDF indexes to "Enslaved Issues, 1757-1866" and "Free Black Papers, 1757-1866." Images of Free Black Births, Deaths, Criminal Papers, Misc. Papers, and Record of Free Negroes
• Thomas Balch Library collection Loudoun County Virginia Emancipation Association [1896 - 2015] M00145

Louisa County

• Slaves of Samuel Gist of Goochland, Hanover and Louisa counties in Virginia.

Madison County

• Madison County Re-Enslavement Petitions

Mathews County

• Gwynns Island Project Created by Allison Thomas and Maria Montgomery

Mecklenburg County

• Mecklenburg, Virginia 1860 Slave Holders and 1700 Freeman

New Kent County

• The Parish register of Saint Peter's New Kent County, Va. from 1680 to 1787

Orange County

• Buried Truth: Orange County, Virginia natives sent to Liberia
• Justice Prevails Descendants of enslaved people at James Madison's historic plantation win bruising battle to tell their stories.

Prince Edward County

• July 1867 list of destitute elderly freedmen in Prince Edward County: Virginia, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DZV7-3PF?cc=1596147&wc=9LMG-6TL%3A1078507302%2C1078509201 : 25 June 2014), Quartermaster and disbursing officer > Roll 38, Ration returns, Feb-Jun 1867 > image 1099 of 1172; citing NARA microfilm publication M1913 (College Park, Maryland: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  • Shared by Dr. Shelley Murphy in 3 November 2023 Freedmen's Bureau Fridays study group. I thought we might like to add them sometime. Since they were elderly in 1867 it seems they could be some of the oldest folks alive at the end of the Civil War. Lowe-866 00:35, 4 November 2023 (UTC)
• Tax lists for 1784, 1785, and 1786 all name slaves with their owners in Prince Edward county. Link for 1784: Personal Property Tax Lists, 1784, Prince Edward County, Virginia

Russell County

• Russell County History, Slaves and Free Blacks Resources]
• Slaves and Free Blacks Mentioned in Russell County Will Books, 1835-1866: https://russellcountyhistory.org/safb/articles/wills.html

Southampton County

• Slaveholders of Southampton County, 1782-1803

Spotsylvania County

• African America History of Fredericksburg
• Black History in Fredericksburg

Surry County

• African American Heads of Household listed in the 1830 Surry County, Virginia Census
• African American Heads of Households listed in the 1840 Surry County, Virginia Census
• African Americans listed in the 1850 Surry County, Virginia Census
• 1850 Surry County, Virginia Slave Census
• 1850 Surry County, Virginia Mortality Schedule
• 1860 Surry County Virginia Mortality Schedule

Washington County

• Abingdon Negro Cemetery

Westmoreland County

• 1782 Slave Owners and the number of slaves held

Wise Count

• See African-American Resources for Wise County, Virginia

Wythe County

• See African-American Resources for Wythe County, Virginia
• Kegley Library
• PhD paper on Wythe County VA artisans A picture of Wythe County, VA's early German Settlements and their culture.

Resources by Location: Independent Cities

Richmond, Virginia

• History Matters: In the Richmond Slave Market
• Richmond Slave Market Civil War
• Richmond Slave Cemeteries

• Shockoe Hill Burial Ground
• Shockoe Burial Ground
• (Paywall) Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground

• Richmond Slave Trail

Resources by Location: Regions

Appalachia

• Black in Appalachia

Slavery Resources

• Free(d) African Americans after 1782
• A Mixed Bag for Virginia
• Slave Birth Index
• History of Slavery in Virginia at Wikipedia
• USBH Virginia Plantations
• Virginia 1850 Slave Schedules
• Confederate Slave Payrolls on WikiTree, with links to pages by county, and links to identified slave owners and enslaved ancestors. Project Ongoing.
• Virginia Slave Narratives
• Slave Insurance Policies--Virginia See also: Slavery Era Insurance Registry
• Unknown No Longer Virginia Historical Society database of slave names
• Virginia Slaves Freed in Virginia after 1782
• Runaway Slaves of Virginia
• Encyclopedia Virginia: Slave Ships and the Middle Passage
• Virginia Emigrants to Liberia (formerly enslaved)
• Legacies of Enslavement at Christ's College Gawin Corbin, planter
• Richard Corbin Papers and Richard Corbin Papers Colonial Williamsburg and Moss neck Manor
• “Colored Freemen as Slave Owners in Virginia.” The Journal of Negro History 1, no. 3 (1916): 233–42. Goldsmyth, Samll, James Radford, David Jones, Peter Hawkins, and John H. Russell. (open access).
• "Slaves that have escaped to the enemy during the war" - Names of enslaved people by county.