Data Sources for Slavery Database
Data pertains to heads of household (or families) with either slaves, or free persons of color. It also includes free blacks. Currently at over 50,000 records.
Update 6/5/2019: Added a lot of census data.
1780 PA Slave Register
- Bedford County
- Bucks County
- Cumberland County
- Lancaster County (index only, original records lost)
- Washington pending.
- Westmorland County
This represents all known extant 1780 slave registers. Note that in 1780 the above counties were much larger than today and this coverage represents about 1/3 of the state.
1788 PA Slave Birth Register
- Adams County (1800-1820)
- Bedford County (1780-1834)
- Bucks County (1788-1802)
- Centre County (1803-1820)
- Chester County (1788-1821)
- Cumberland County (1780-1814)
For Bucks County Data: Wright, Robert E., “Slaves in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,” 01/01/97 – 01/01/97. 6. Philadelphia, PA: McNeil Center for Early American Studies [distributor], 2015. http://repository.upenn.edu
Census
- About half extracted from USGenWeb Census data, the rest manually transcribed.
- 1790
- All counties in MD and PA.
- 1800
- MD: All counties.
- PA counties: Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Centre, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Greene, and Venango.
Additional Sources for Cumberland County Only
- All slave owners in all direct tax lists through1830
- All households with colored persons (whether free or slave) in the federal census for Cumberland County from 1800-1840 (includes “all other free persons”)
- Miscellaneous Slave Records