Those having African-American ties in Louisiana would want to review an online site titled Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1718 – 1820. Not only those who had slaves as ancestors, but also those who held slaves in Louisiana and surrounding regions would be interested in this database. Though the efforts of Dr. Gwendolyn Hall, a New Orleans writer and historian, along with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a collection of databases have been assembled covering Afro-Louisiana History and especially the African-American slaves in Louisiana.
Dr. Hall put together the personal history of some 100,000 slaves who were brought to Louisiana from the 1700s into the 1800s. The databases contain information of African slave names, their owners, ages, their mates, place of origin, name of plantation, price paid for a slave, along with public testimony by slaves.
This is a free to use database on the Internet. There is a search engine to assist in locating individuals. Those searches can be done by a name, even a given name, the person’s gender, racial description (black, mulatto, Indian), location of a plantation, the owner’s name or a seller’s name.
A selection of numerous slaves names that relate to the search engine information provided will then appear. Each one can be called up individually. For example: the male black named Adam, age 15 years old who belonged to Benjamin Brown and was sold by Jordan Johnson for $600 on February 26, 1816 in New Orleans. Information was also provided of whether Adam had his mother with him, along with any special skills held by Adam. Lastly, the information stated where the slave, Adam was taken to the Parish of Feliciana.
There is the case information on Hannah, a black female, adult, who was being sold from the estate of a deceased individual named Johnson on April 19, 1819 who was from East Raton Rouge. The female slave had an inventory value of $900.00. She was not being emancipated. No information of what happened to Hannah.
Just reviewing some of the documents gives you a better insight into the slave trade. There is the example of Ambrose, an black infant male, who was sold by Thomas H. Williams to Joseph Vidal on Feb. 18, 1814. The document did state the infant was sold for $8,000 with his mother.
The database does show that many slaves were sold off after the master died in the household. Sometimes the slaves were sold to relatives of the master. The example was Moses, age 28, a black male, who was sold along with his female ‘mate’ Helen, age 26, to settle the estate between the widow of the master and his mother. Moses was sold for $3,100 on Sept. 22, 1819.
This site will provide a fascinating search in history and hopefully offer some interesting family history.
< Return To Blog Hello. I am writing a book about the history of the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, LA. There was reportedly a slave by the name of Chloe working for the Clark Woodruff family in the late 1800's. I don't have her last name. I am trying to verify that she existed. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you so much. Rebecca Pittman [email protected]
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