The history of the free African American community

as told through the family history of most African Americans

who were free in the Southeast during the colonial period

About 2,000 pages of family histories based on all colonial court order and minute books on microfilm at the state archives of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware (over 1000 volumes), 1790-1810 census records, tax lists, wills, deeds, free Negro registers, marriage bonds, parish registers, Revolutionary War pension files, etc. There are also another 2,000 pages or so of abstracted tax lists, census records, etc., under "Colonial Tax Lists..."

 

Paul Heinegg

 

Send questions and comments to pheinegg@verizon.net

 

Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina
Foreword by historian Ira Berlin

Recent updates:

January 2008: Edwin, Robert Byrd, Bartlet Chavis, Patience Fortune, Gwinn, Johns, Lucas, George McCoy, Phillis Manley, Isham Martin, Moss, Nickens of Ohio, Joshua Peters, Joseph Proctor, Robinson, Ruff, Seldon, Anderson Tyre, Charles Valentine, Edward, Andrew and Samuel Viney, Thomas Wilkins.

February 2008: Alford, Chloe Valentine, Connally, Drury, Luke, Augustine and Henry Stewart/ Valentine, Henry Redcross, Luke Gowens, Drury Scott, Underwood, Luke Hughes, Hurley, Redman, Reuben Ross, Rawls, Payne, Bunday, Cook, Grace, James Nickens, James Peters, Phillips, Pinn, Thomas Timber, William Clark, Henry Dalton, Alexander and Sophia Gowen.

Maryland: Blake, Chuck, Ray, Mayhew, Johnson, Sampson.

March 2008:  Giles County Register of Free Negroes, 1816-1864

Petersburg Personal Property Tax List 1800-1833. Alford, Families that lived in Petersburg: Bell, Bibby, Brandon, Byrd, Chavis, Coleman, Corn, Coy, Curtis, Debrix, Evans, Lawrence, Pettiford, Tyner, Valentine, Walden.

Rockingham County Personal Property Tax List 1795-1813

Taxation of Free African Americans

Petersburg Register of Free Negroes, 1819-1833

Southampton County Tax List 1801 to 1826

Maryland: Morris.

Maryland and Delaware


Illinois
Free and American, A study of Eleven Illinois Families of Colour, by Darrel Dexter (Updated November 2004)

19th century photos of free African American and Indian families

Recent updates: photos of Logan County, Ohio.

Colonial Tax Lists, Census, and Court Records for Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennesse and Virginia

List of Indian Slaves, Free Indians, and Free African Americans identified in Colonial Records Without Last Names

Service in the Revolutionary War

Virginia Slaves Freed After 1782

East Indians in Colonial Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina

Slaves named in colonial Halifax County, North Carolina, and King George County, Virginia wills

Hard copies of Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware and Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina can be purchased from the publisher:

Link to order book on North Carolina and Virginia from Genealogical Publishing

book on Maryland and Delaware

or call 1-800-296-6687