African American – Davidson County TNGenWeb

African Americans

Black Nashville: A Bibliography, available online, courtesy: Black Nashville Genealogy & History blog.

Tennessee, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872

Freedman’s Bureau Collection at MTSU]The Freedman’s Bureau at Tennessee Virtual Archives

Waldrep, G.C. “‘Free Colored’ Heads of Household in the 1820 Tennessee Census,” available online, courtesy: Free African Americans website. [Includes free African Americans in this county.]

Daniel Graham Slave Records – site by Konnetta Alexander

Employment Rolls and Nonpayment Rolls of Negroes Employed in the Defenses of

Nashville, Tennessee, 1862-1863 Index On-line.

In 1862 Nashville built a series of forts around the city. The project was built by Union soldiers and impressed slaves and free black workers in just five months. This site lists the laborers employed August 1, 1862 to April 1, 1863. The site gives the name of the slave, the slave owner and the file number.

For a case study of how to trace a slave family in early Nashville, study:

Franklin, John Hope and Loren Schweninger. In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. FHL Book 929.273 T361f