Slavery Perry Co

Perry County Courthouse

(courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives)

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Perry County, Tennessee

Slavery/African-American Research

Owning slaves was a way of life for some people who lived in Perry County Tennessee before and during the War Between the States. Because of the way that slaves were treated, there is not a whole lot of information about individually named slaves. The idea for this page and project came about as I was considering this issue.

Research Project:

I think there is a need to have one coordinated place where all information available about slaves in Perry County can be listed and compared. The goal of this project would be to be able to identify freed slaves after the war with their slave owners. By doing this, perhaps more information about the slaves' ancestry could be determined, such as birth dates, parents, and even perhaps places of origin.

There are several records that we can check:

federal census records from 1820 - 1860 would provide slave owners names and locations;
federal slave census schedules from 1850 and 1860 would provide the number, age and sex of the slaves owned by each owner;
federal census records from 1870 might indicate a relationship between the freed slave and their former owners;
US Freedman Bureau records;
Civil war records of slaves who had fought;
Slave narratives done by the WPA in the 1930's;
Newspaper articles would be particularly useful before the war, as they might mention slaves that had run away;
Will and probate records would also be very useful as slaves were usually given to relatives after an owner's death;
Stories handed down by slaves to their descendants;

If you would like to be part of this project and submit transcribed information concerning slaves in Perry County, please contact me, Jan Monnin, your Perry County TnGenWeb coordinator.

Name of Item	Date Submitted	Submitted by
1820 federal census - list of slave owners and number of slaves owned	17 July 2008	Jan Monnin
1830 federal census - list of slave owners and number of slaves owned	17 July 2008	Jan Monnin
1850 federal slave schedule - list of slave owners and number of slaves owned: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html# includes link to actual images. Project is 67% complete as of 9/22/2008. Click on the map of the USA and a list of projects will come up. The 1850 slave schedule is one of those on the list.	22 Sept 2008	Jan Monnin
Freedmen's Bank Records 1865-1874 - complete transcription available at: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html# NOTE: includes a link to the actual census image! Click on the map of the USA and a list of projects will come up. The Freedmen's records are one of those on the list.	22 Sept 2008	Jan Monnin

Research Links:

This page originally compiled by Jan Monnin.

Your County Coordinator: Jerry L. Butler