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African American Databases, Documents & Records
Search for your African American roots in these databases and collections of digitized documents, including African American cemeteries, surnames, military records, biographies, lists of free blacks, slave narratives and other sources for African American family history research.
Free African Americans of VA, NC, SC, MD and DE
Two outstanding books by Paul Heinegg on the free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware can be read online, containing about 2,000 pages of family histories based on original records. There is also another 5,000+ pages of abstracted records included.
Voyages - The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Explore information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Includes over 67,000 Africans identified by name, age, gender, origin, and place of embarkation.
African American Cemeteries Online
"People working together to build an online database of African American genealogical material for the 21st century." Includes African American cemeteries from several U.S. states, as well as Barbados and Canada.
American Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology
A project of the University of Virginia, this database of slave narratives includes a sampling of some of the interviews and photos of former slaves taken between 1936 and 1938 with first-hand accounts of their experiences.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System
Search this free database for information on the 235,000 USCT (Unites States Colored Troops) soldiers, regiments (units), battles, and NPS civil war parks. It also includes histories of 180 USTC units/regiments.
Freedmen's Bureau Online
A wonderful collection of records from around the United States, including marriages, indentures, land records, and signatures of depositors in some branches of the Freedman Savings & Trust.