Enslaved in Pennsylvania: County Slave Registries Database 1780-1847
Enslaved in Pennsylvania: County Slave Registries Database 1780-1847
There is no single repository for Pennsylvania’s surviving county slave registries. “Some have survived as individual registrations, others as original manuscript registries, and others still as transcripts of original documents.” If you are researching people who were enslaved in Pennsylvania these are invaluable resources, that can be tremendously hard to find. I hope that sharing database it will reconnect descendants with their ancestors, and help you tell the whole of the American story.
We can thank Cory James Young for his diligence and devotion to finding and sharing the names of the ancestors. The following dataset was created by him while for his Master’s thesis For Life or Otherwise: Abolition and Slavery in South Central Pennsylvania, 1780-1847
General Fleming Mitchell may have been born & still enslaved in Pennsylvania well into the 19th century, According to one source, he was emancipated by a Philadelphia Doctor shortly before he shows up in Dauphin county record as a freeman (more on his story later).
The premise of this dissertation is that gradual abolition legislation did not abolish slavery in Pennsylvania. In the broadest terms, it argues that there is a history of chattel slavery in Pennsylvania that begins rather than ends with gradual abolition. It is the first study to examine the entire corpus of Pennsylvania’s surviving county slave registries, documents that provide demographic and genealogical data about enslavers and the enslaved. Rather than centering Philadelphia, it focuses on South Central Pennsylvania as the region where slavery endured longest and which produced the most detailed set of records. By definition, gradual abolition programs were both slavery regimes and emancipation schemes. They necessarily retained aspects of existing slavery systems, discarded others, and introduced features all their own. While limiting the choices of Pennsylvania enslavers in some important respects, gradual abolition also created new opportunities for them and their families. The five chapters of this dissertation each explore a different subfield of history in order to integrate Pennsylvania more fully into the literature on slavery in the United States. Chapter One is political history. Through an analysis of legislative journals, it catalogs the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s attempts to moderate its gradual abolition program as well as its repeated failure to enact total abolition legislation. Chapter Two is institutional history. It examines financial account books alongside the county slave registries to reveal how enslaver capital and enslaved labor contributed to the financing, construction, and operation of Dickinson College. Chapter Three is women’s history. It centers the experiences of enslaved Black women and white women enslavers in order to emphasize how hereditary term slavery more closely resembled lifetime slavery than indentured servitude. Chapter Four is a history of borders. It analyzes slave narratives and late-nineteenth-century histories to show how Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition laws facilitated the spread of slavery into Western New York and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Finally, Chapter Five is legal history. It examines county and state court records to explain how enslavers fashioned, and how Black Pennsylvanians resisted, the law of term slavery.
Pennsylvania County Slave Registers
Slavery for Life or Otherwise
In 2018 Young gave the following presentation at the Cumberland County Historical Society, in order to present the rare and in-depth research he completed for his master’s thesis For Life or Otherwise: Abolition and Slavery in South Central Pennsylvania, 1780-1847.
Cory Young is pursuing his Ph.D. at Georgetown University. This program is named for the working title of his dissertation. Cory has spent a lot of time over the last few months researching here and around the area. The dissertation examines how white and black families navigated a changing world after the state assembly enacted the nation’s first gradual abolition law during the Revolutionary War. It emphasizes the fact that there is a troubling history of slavery in Cumberland County that occurred between the sunnier events of emancipation and county participation in the underground railroad.
Additional Resources for Studying Slavery in Pennsylvania
“22d Colored U.S.C.T. – United States Civil War – Huntington Digital Library.” Accessed May 13, 2023. https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll6/id/3/rec/2.
ABC27. “Exhumed Black Civil War Veterans Honored before Burial in National Cemetery,” November 16, 2016. https://www.abc27.com/news/exhumed-black-civil-war-veterans-honored-before-burial-in-national-cemetery/.
“About the Afrolumens Project.” Accessed August 24, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/aboutus.htm#gsc.tab=0.
“Adams County, Pennsylvania, Slaveholders A-Z.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/adamsaz.html.
“Cemeteries as Sites of Discrimination | Carlisle Parks.” Accessed May 13, 2023. https://blogs.dickinson.edu/carlisleparks/national-context/.
Cindy Hines. “William Laughlin 1720-1800 County Antrim, Ireland & Pennsylvania.” Genealogical. ENSLAVEMENT-TO-CITIZENSHIP, April 8, 2021. http://www.enslavement-to-citizenship.com/1/category/cumberland-county.
Correspondent, Ortrun Gates, Sentinel. “Cumberland Bears Legacy of Slavery.” The Sentinel, June 19, 2007. https://cumberlink.com/special-section/cumberland-bears-legacy-of-slavery/article_77a72ada-d0bc-5576-9c84-48a4a345367e.html.
Daniels, Jason. “Protest and Participation: Reconsidering the Quaker Slave Trade in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 85, no. 2 (2018): 239–65. https://doi.org/10.5325/pennhistory.85.2.0239.
“Dauphin County 1798 Slaveholders.” Accessed November 6, 2023. http://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/dau1798.html.
“Dauphin County 1800 and 1807 Census of Enslaved Persons.” Accessed November 6, 2023. http://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/dau1800.html.
“Doubling Gap Church Of God Cemetery in Newville, Pennsylvania – Find a Grave Cemetery.” Accessed May 14, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2317042/doubling-gap-church-of-god-cemetery.
“Enslavement in Pennsylvania, Sources Page 1.” Accessed August 26, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/sources.html#05.
“Enslavement in Pennsylvania Sources, Page 2.” Accessed August 26, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/source2.html.
“Frequently Asked Questions About Slavery in Pennsylvania.” Accessed August 26, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/faq.html#1850_question.
Harrisburg Daily Independent. “Mary Jane Bones-Last Slave Born in Lower York County Dies.” June 24, 1907.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Free Black and Enslaved Head of Household in First Census Dauphin County.” June 7, 1890.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Funeral Obsequies of Hannah DeWitt.” February 10, 1871.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Harrisburg Was A Refuge For Slaves.” September 7, 1931.
https://www.facebook.com/PynesPhotography. “Three Civil War Soldiers given Proper Military Burial.” pennlive, November 17, 2016. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/11/three_african-american_civil_w.html.
Inc, Zillow. “1632 Pine Rd, Carlisle, PA 17015.” Zillow. Accessed May 14, 2023. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1632-Pine-Rd-Carlisle-PA-17015/110663787_zpid/.
Lancaster Intelligencer. “150 DOLLARS REWARD–Negro Thomas Ayres.” May 20, 1818.
Lancaster Intelligencer. “For Sale–The Time Of A Negro Girl and Child.” May 25, 1818.
“Lester Iames Farm Cemetery in Pennsylvania – Find a Grave Cemetery.” Accessed September 28, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2420624/lester-iames-farm-cemetery.
McGill, Joseph. “Slavery in Pennsylvania – The Slave Dwelling Project,” June 29, 2018. https://slavedwellingproject.org/slavery-in-pennsylvania-2/.
“Miscellaneous Slavery Data, Adams County, PA.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/adamisc.html.
Nash, Gary B. “Slaves and Slaveowners in Colonial Philadelphia.” The William and Mary Quarterly 30, no. 2 (1973): 223–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/1925149.
“Pennsylvania Enslavement Sources, Page 3.” Accessed August 26, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/slavery/source3.html.
Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine. “‘In Immortal Splendor’: Wilkes-Barre’s Fugitive Slave Case of 1853.” Accessed February 2, 2023. http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/in-immortal-splendor-wilkes-barres-fugitive-slave-case-1853/.
“Photos of the 22nd USCT – Huntington Digital Library.” Accessed May 13, 2023. https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll6/search/searchterm/Levi%20S.%20Graybill%20papers./field/phycola/mode/exact/conn/and/page/1.
Slavery for Life or Otherwise, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwZarSktb4.
“Slavery in Pennsylvania.” Accessed December 10, 2022. http://slavenorth.com/pennsylvania.htm.
“Slavery in Pennsylvania | Cornerofgenealogy.Com.” Accessed June 11, 2023. https://cornerofgenealogy.com/slavery-in-pennsylvania/.
Soderlund, Jean R. “Black Women in Colonial Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 107, no. 1 (1983): 49–68.
“STANTON | Find People Whose Family Name Is STANTON at Locatefamily.Com (Page 45 of 508) | Locate Family | Find People for FREE!” Accessed May 13, 2023. https://www.locatefamily.com/S/STA/STANTON-45.html.
“Sterrett-Hassinger House.” In Wikipedia, June 3, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sterrett-Hassinger_House&oldid=1091234477.
The Sentinel. “Colored Damsel of Carlisle Caused Shooting.” January 27, 1913.
“The Year of Jubilee, Ch 7, Rebellion: Second Generation Entrepreneurs.” Accessed November 4, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/yoj/chap07d.htm.
“The Year of Jubilee–Chapter Four: Legacy of Slavery–Agricultural Slaves.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/yoj/chap04a.htm.
“The Year of Jubilee–Chapter Four: Legacy of Slavery–Buying a Slave.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/yoj/chap04d.htm.
“The Year of Jubilee–Chapter Four: Legacy of Slavery–Industrial Slaves.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/yoj/chap04b.htm.
“The Year of Jubilee–Chapter Four: Legacy of Slavery–Tradesmen and Others.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/yoj/chap04c.htm.
Times, Alex J. Hayes For the Gettysburg. “County Turns over Slave Registry to Historical Society.” GettysburgTimes.Com, June 10, 2023. https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/local/article_b632db59-b421-5a18-847c-40a9aef3cb60.html.
Times, T. W. Burger For the Gettysburg. “Frealing Loved to Bloom Where She Was Planted.” GettysburgTimes.com, May 13, 2023. https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/absent_friends/article_69fcbbf2-f8af-5070-94d9-16790394e5c4.html.
———. “Stanton Addresses Historical Society.” GettysburgTimes.com, May 13, 2023. https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/local/article_006d2118-4cbb-5704-bdec-23ee84a8c390.html.
Tomek, Beverly C. Colonization and Its Discontents: Emancipation, Emigration, and Antislavery in Antebellum Pennsylvania. NYU Press, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qggn7.
Turner, Edward Raymond. “Slavery in Colonial Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 35, no. 2 (1911): 141–51.
“Underground Railroad in Central Pennsylvania.” Accessed August 24, 2023. https://www.afrolumens.com/ugrr/index.html#gsc.tab=0.
Wax, Darold D. “A Philadelphia Surgeon on a Slaving Voyage to Africa, 1749-1751.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 92, no. 4 (1968): 465–93.
———. “Africans on the Delaware: The Pennsylvania Slave Trade, 1759–1765.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 50, no. 1 (1983): 38–49.
———. “Negro Import Duties in Colonial Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 97, no. 1 (1973): 22–44.
———. “Negro Imports into Pennsylvania, 1720-1766.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 32, no. 3 (1965): 254–87.
———. “Negro Resistance to the Early American Slave Trade.” The Journal of Negro History 51, no. 1 (1966): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.2307/2716373.
———. “Preferences for Slaves in Colonial America.” The Journal of Negro History 58, no. 4 (1973): 371–401. https://doi.org/10.2307/2716746.
———. “Quaker Merchants and the Slave Trade in Colonial Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 86, no. 2 (1962): 143–59.
———. “Robert Ellis, Philadelphia Merchant and Slave Trader.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 88, no. 1 (1964): 52–69.
———. “Whither the Comparative History of Slavery?” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 80, no. 1 (1972): 85–93.
WESTSIDENEIGHBORHOOD. “Carlisle Civil War History Lesson: Memorial Park-Lincoln Cemetery: United States Colored Troops (USCT) Graveyard.” Carlisle West Side Neighbors (blog), June 27, 2013. https://carlislewestside.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/carlisle-civil-war-history-lesson-memorial-park-lincoln-cemetery-united-states-colored-troops-usct-graveyard/.
York Daily Record. “York County’s Conspiracy of 1803: Troubling Story of Friendship, Tragedy & a Region in Change.” Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/2022/06/15/york-countys-conspiracy-of-1803-a-troubling-story/65361114007/.
Young, Cory James. “For Life or Otherwise: Abolition and Slavery in South Central Pennsylvania, 1780-1847.” Georgetown University-Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Thesis, Georgetown University, 2021. https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1062658.
