Records of Slavery

About

These records contain volumes of birth records, manumission certificates, and court minutes covering the lives of enslaved people in the localities that would become New York City. Spanning the 17th and early 19th century, the majority of these materials were created with the passing of the 1799 Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery and provide a rare, though still somewhat faint, spotlight on a community that was integral to the growth of this city.

For more information, visit archives.nyc.

Please note: Material in these volumes may contain harmful language.

Works

Start Transcribing

Court Minutes, Town Meetings, Slave Births and Manumissions, 1679-1816

Translated in 1911.

Collaboration is restricted.

383 pages: 35% complete (10% indexed, 36% transcribed)

Manuscript Records of the Town of Bushwick, 1660-1825

Early History of the Town, Deeds, Road Records, Records of the Births of Slaves (translated 1913) [Features Dutch text and their English translations]

Collaboration is restricted.

581 pages: 39% complete (4% indexed, 39% transcribed)

Records of Personal Mortgages, Slave Masters [Birth Registers and Manumissions of Enslaved People], 1799-1838

Note: This book contains a ledger of the certificates that are logged from page 23 (titled "Records of Certificates") and onward. Only begin using the spreadsheet with the written certificates, starting on page 23, to avoid duplicating data.

Collaboration is restricted.

83 pages: 93% complete (17% indexed, 94% transcribed)