Digital Library

Digital Library on American Slavery

Underwritten by a "We the People" grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Digital Library on American Slavery is a cooperative venture between the Race and Slavery Petitions Project and the Electronic Resources and Information Technology Department of University Libraries at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The Digital Library offers a searchable database of detailed personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color.
Designed as a tool for scholars, historians, teachers, students, genealogists, and interested citizens, the site provides access to information gathered and analyzed over an eighteen-year period from petitions to southern legislatures and country courts filed between 1775 and 1867 in the fifteen slaveholding states in the United States and the District of Columbia.

Information in the petitions can be accessed in three ways. To search the petitions by keyword, select geographic and date criteria then enter a search term or phrase below. To search the database for specific named individuals, select the Search By Name tab. To see petitions associated with particular historical, legal, or cultural topics, select the Browse Subjects tab.