{"id":3940,"date":"2023-08-05T05:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/?p=3940"},"modified":"2023-08-05T05:47:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T09:47:00","slug":"sad-yet-necessary-sources-for-african-american-ancestry-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/05\/sad-yet-necessary-sources-for-african-american-ancestry-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sad, yet necessary sources for African American ancestry researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last place many African Diaspora ancestors want to research is through the study of slave sales. The writing and imagery are sadly powerful in the historical accounts of financial transactions and public spectacles involving slaves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, the mostly oddly written newspaper advertisements and posters, often offer great clues to African American, Caribbean American, Native American and European Blacks&#8217; genealogy and ancestry links. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best clues to tear down the &#8220;brick wall&#8221; research are found in the <strong>names <\/strong>on the ads by the slave owners. Their imprints are often with first and surnames and identities of their family members who would benefit from the sale. The ad below that was posted in the Savannah, Georgia newspaper in 1859, brought more than $300,000 in <strong>revenue<\/strong> for Joseph Bryan, whose name appears in the ad. That&#8217;s equal to more than $9 million in today&#8217;s dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also, the <strong>location <\/strong>of the sale helps to confirm the researchers are on the right track in identifying African Diaspora family members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/slave-sale-ad-from-the-savannah-area.png?w=543\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3943\" style=\"width:543px;height:386px\" width=\"543\" height=\"386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/slave-sale-ad-from-the-savannah-area.png 543w, https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/slave-sale-ad-from-the-savannah-area-300x213.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An advertisement published in The Savannah Republican on Feb. 8, 1859, by the slave dealer Joseph Bryan for a two-day auction that became the largest in history. Four hundred thirty-six men, women and children were sold for $303,850, equivalent to about $9.4 million today.(https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/02\/12\/magazine\/1619-project-slave-auction-sites.html)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The advertisements also include information that is helpful when comparing <strong>tax<\/strong> and <strong>estate <\/strong>records of enslavers and their sales agents. The ad below also includes a <strong>signature<\/strong> that is also important when ensuring the slave owners&#8217; records including African Americans in bondage are accurately connected to genealogy documents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ad was published in 1851. In today&#8217;s economic terms, the $1,200 to $1,250 is equivalent to approximately $50,000 in today&#8217;s monetary terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"605\" height=\"762\" src=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2363c29159__605.jpg?w=605\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2363c29159__605.jpg 605w, https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2363c29159__605-238x300.jpg 238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In some instances &#8212; albeit rare &#8212; slave owners listed the <strong>first names and primary trade or unpaid work purposes of the African Americans <\/strong>they owned. This helps African American genealogy, history and ancestral researchers identify legacy relatives.  In our genealogy research, typically the slaves&#8217; surnames were those of their owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This sale also indicates that the slaves would be sold in <strong>families<\/strong>. Sadly and happily, this was considered a huge benefit to the African American enslaved population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"605\" height=\"937\" src=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2364f3a803__605.jpg?w=605\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2364f3a803__605.jpg 605w, https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/in-the-19th-century-were-spread-posters-communicating-auctions-sales-of-american-slaves-and-this-is-unbelievable-to-have-happened-5ae2364f3a803__605-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last place many African Diaspora ancestors want to research is through the study of slave sales. The writing and imagery are sadly powerful in the historical accounts of financial transactions and public spectacles involving slaves. Yet, the mostly oddly written newspaper advertisements and posters, often offer great clues to African American, Caribbean American, Native [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[355,379,492,879],"class_list":["post-3940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ancestral-historal","tag-black-genealogy","tag-brick-walls","tag-family-genealogy","tag-slave-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodgenesgenealogy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}