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
Winner:
The American Society of Genealogists' Donald Lines Jacobus Award
and
The North Carolina Genealogical Society Award of Excellence in Publishing
Two books you can read on-line containing 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 5,000 pages of abstracted colonial tax lists, Virginia personal property tax lists, census records, etc., under "Colonial Tax Lists..."
Paul Heinegg
Send questions and comments to pheinegg1@verizon.net
Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina
Foreword by historian Ira Berlin
Maryland and Delaware
Colonial Tax Lists, Virginia personal property tax lists, Census, and Court Records for Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennesse and Virginia
19th century photos of free African American and Indian families
List of Indian Slaves, Free Indians, and Free African Americans identified in Colonial Records Without Last Names
Service in the Revolutionary War
Recent updates:
April 2012: Norfolk County Register of Free Negroes & Mulattoes 1809-1852
December 2011: Nelson County Personal Property Tax http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/nelson.htm Arnold family
October 2011: List of Free Negroes & Mulattoes in the lower district of Lunenburg County, 1802-1803 (Library of Virginia) http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Lunenburgfree.htm
Illinois
Free and American, A study of Eleven Illinois Families of Colour, by Darrel Dexter (Updated November 2004)
Tennessee & Indiana
The Lyles Family by Arlene B. Polk
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