Enslaved People in Buncombe Co, NC 1791-1868

This project came about from the Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society’s (OBCGS) mission to help individuals locate their ancestors in Buncombe County, NC, particularly enslaved ancestors and freed people of color. Census records before 1870 did not include African Americans, making it  tedious work to comb through a variety of records in search of their ancestors. Therefore, the OBCGS collaborated with the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s (UNC-Asheville) History Department to create a searchable database for enslaved and freed people in Buncombe County from 1791 to 1868.

Student intern, Lonnience Thomas, examined records available in the library as well as online sources to build this database.

• These records include Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions minutes, indenture bonds, slave deeds, cohabitation records, church minutes, newspaper articles, slave schedules, wills and estate records.
• Each entry is organized by the enslaved person’s name (if available), age, sex, county where the record originates, parents, associations, source of information, type of record, and any important comments regarding the source or individual.
• In this database, “association” refers to any family or person connected to the enslaved or freed individual – this could be an enslaver or a guardian of some sort.
• Many names are unknown, but the records help identify a particular person in a specific place and time, which is the first step in genealogical work. As such, there are many duplicate names that could refer to the same person. In this project, research was not done to verify possible connections.
• The records labeled “questionable” name individuals found in the handwritten court minutes of 1840–1854. Their names are listed because they may or may not have been enslaved. There is little evidence to determine their status.
• Some records in the database use abbreviations for formatting purposes. Court records and slave deeds include both “CS” (Court Session) and “DOE” (Date of Event). Some sources provided both, while others gave only one, which is reflected in the database.
• All other records simply include the date the record was created.
• Cohabitation Records include the date the marriage was officially registered and recognized by the State in 1866. However, many individuals considered themselves married before the official registration date. The earlier reported marriage date is noted in the comments section.

All records include a source of information, represented by a number combination. Example: Source #7 on page #358. The first number  refers to the SOURCE ENTRIES document (found below), indicating the list number of that source. The second number indicates the page number in that source where the information is located.

SOURCE EXAMPLE: Database Entry#12, Fanny, Age 27, Female: Source of Information  #1 on page #120. On the SOURCE ENTRIES document, the Bill of Sale is found in 1. Manning, Nancy, ed, Buncombe County, North Carolina Court Records: Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions Minutes No. 1, on page 120. See the SOURCE ENTRIES document below for information on requesting copies of the transcribed records from OBCGS.

Source Entries for Enslaved Persons Database

The Buncombe County Slave Deeds are located on the Register of Deeds website along with the Buncombe County Cohabitation Records. The Slave Deeds page is organized as grantor, grantee, slave names, book, and page. To access the raw document, click on either the book or page hyperlink. It will take you to a separate page with an assortment of other raw documents. To access the document that you need, locate the enslaved name (if available) or enslaver and click on the image for that source. It will take you to the source.

ABBREVIATIONS KEY:
CS – Court Session
DOE – Date of Event
DECD – Deceased
FPC – Free Person of Color

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

In addition to Lonnience Thomas and her research, OBCGS thanks the following individuals for their collaboration in creating this database:

1. Bill Sederburg, OBCGS Supporter – donation to fund internship held by UNC-Asheville senior, Lonnience Thomas.
2. Dr. Ellen Holmes Pearson, Professor of History and Roy Carroll Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences, UNC-Asheville –  mentorship and supplementary funding of the internship.
3. Stella Taylor, OBCGS Librarian – consultation and project supervision.
4. Linda Brown, OBCGS Docent and Author – consultation and research sources.
5. Drew Reisinger, Buncombe County Register of Deeds – creation of online databases, Slave Deeds and Cohabitation Records.
6. Nancy Manning, Sandra Samz, Ann Broadbent, Joyce Parris and Cheryl Chasin – transcribers/editors of record books available at OBCGS.
7. Edith Garrett, OBCGS Website Manager – creation of data table on OBCGS public website.

Enslaved People Buncombe Co 1791-1868