Database of Servitude and
Emancipation Records (1722–1863)
This database includes approximately 3,400 names found in
governmental records involving the servitude and emancipation of Africans and,
occasionally, Indians in the French and English eras of colonial Illinois
(1722–1790) and African-Americans in the American period of Illinois
(1790–1863). The Archives extracted the names of servants, slaves, or free
persons and masters, witnesses, or related parties from selected governmental
records to produce this database. After searching the database, researchers can
see an abstract of the record by clicking the record number of the appropriate
entry. Currently the following records are included
in this database:
- Bond County
- Board of Supervisors' Minutes, 1817
- Edwards County
- Servitude and Emancipation Record, 1815–1860
- Gallatin County
- Servitude Register, 1815–1839
- Madison County
- Servitude and Emancipation Register, 1805–1826
- Emancipation Registers, 1830–1860
- Massac County
- Emancipation Register, 1849–1855
- Pope County
- Servitude Register, 1816–1819
- Randolph County
- Record Book 1, 1736–1782
Deed Record J-M, 1797–1815
Servitude and Emancipation Registers, 1809–1863
Kaskaskia Manuscripts, 1714–1816
- St. Clair County
- Registre of Insinuations, 1737–1769
Record of Auction of Charleville Estate, 1782
Deed Record A-C, 1790-1796, 1800–1813
Servitude Register, 1805-1832, 1846–1863
Slave Registration Files, 1807–1849
Emancipation Register, 1812–1843
- Union County
- Emancipation Register, 1835–1844
- U.S. General Land Office,
Kaskaskia District
- Board of Commissioners Transcripts of Documents Collected,
1722–1814
- Publications
- Alvord, Clarence Walworth, ed. Cahokia Records,
1778–1790. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1907.
Norton, Margaret Cross, ed. Illinois Census Returns, 1810,1818.
Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1935.
_____, ed. Illinois Census Returns, 1820. Springfield: Illinois State
Historical Library, 1934.
Document
Type
The following list provides brief descriptions of the kinds of
documents involving servitude and emancipation found in the records listed
above:
- Bill of Sale
- Bills of sale record the sale, trade, or transfer of
Negro and Indian slaves through private sales and public auctions.
- Birth
- Although birth records were not usually kept for slaves
or indentured servants, the recording of birth information was sometimes
coincidental with the creation of other types of records.
- Census
- Information is included from the Illinois censuses for
1810, 1818, and 1820 for slaves and free persons of color.
- Divorce
- This divorce settlement grants female slave, Hannah, to
the wife.
- Donation
- During the French colonial period in Illinois, notaries
recorded donations or gifts of property and chattels, given upon
marriage or certain other occasions, often with legal conditions
attached.
- Emancipation
- Emancipation records include both manumissions and
evidences or affidavits of freedom.
- Estate
- Records of the settlement of estates often involved the
sale or disposition of slaves or servants.
- Guardianship
- These records involve the appointment of a guardian for
minors.
- Indenture
- Indentures record agreements between masters and
servants for periods from 1 to 99 years.
- Inventory
- The inventories of the estates of deceased French
slaveholders often listed the slaves belonging to the deceased.
- Lease
- French slaveholders sometimes leased the services of
their slaves at public auction or by private contract.
- Marriage
- Slaves occasionally appeared in French marriage
contracts. A few marriages were recorded for Negroes in the records
indexed for this database.
- Mortgage
- French slaveholders occasionally mortgaged slaves.
- Other
- Records falling into this miscellaneous category
include financial items, such as receipts, contracts, agreements, and
debts; records of runaway slaves; and court records concerning slaves
charged with various crimes.
- Registration
- Beginning in 1805, persons transporting Negroes or
mulattoes into the Indiana Territory were required to register them with
the clerk of the court of Common Pleas. In 1809 the Illinois Territory,
created from the western portion of the Indiana Territory, adopted
Indiana territorial law.
- Will
- Slaves and free Negroes were mentioned occasionally in wills.
Photocopies
For an unofficial and uncertified copy of the original or
published record, please provide the following information: name of county;
servant or slave, and other party; date of entry; and file, volume and/or page
number of record. Many of the
documents, especially for the colonial period, fail to give any name or only
provide a given name for the slave or servant. For those documents lacking the
slave's or servant's name, the researcher can locate an entry if the name of the
owner, witness or related party is known. As a result of limitations on staff
research time, the Archives can do no more than two name searches per request.
If you would like an unofficial and uncertified copy of the record, please
include your mailing address. Send your request to:
Illinois State Archives
Reference Unit
Margaret Cross Norton Building
Capitol Complex
Springfield, Illinois 62756 |
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Telephone: (217) 782-3556
Fax: (217) 524-3930
Submit a Request
Via the Internet |
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