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BLACK H lfT O R 7 M O N T H 1999
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How To Trace Your African Roots
B y S tephen H anks
Everyone w ho has started to trace
their family ancestral lme usually wants
to trace all the w ay to their ancestor’s
country o f origin. F or A frican A m eri­
cans, they already know that at least one
o f their ancestors originated from the
continent o f Africa. B ut how can they
find out w hich particular country in
Africa that ancestor is from ? 1 s there also
som e w ay they can even discover w hich
specific tribal ethnic group their family
descended from? The answ er is Yes.
there is a way! B ut how ?
Hundreds o f thousands o f A frican
bom men, w om en and children were
brought to A m erica as slaves and had
their African names and languages taken
from them. The slave traders and plan­
tation ow ners replacing them w ith non-
A frican nam es (A m erican, Spanish,
French, etc.) and the English language.
B ut the new nam e and language was
what they spoke and w ere called by in
public. W hat do you think they spoke
and called them selves by in private?
A fricans knew w ho they w ere and
the places they cam e from, handing that
information dow n to their children and
to other slaves w ho m ay have interm ar­
ried with them and becam e part o f their
African-slave extended fam ily com m u­
nity. A frican custom s and language
w ords w ere fused into their now new,
A m erican language and environment.
This created an “A fro-A m erican” cul­
ture. Those original A frican w ords,
phrases and custom s still lay em bedded
in the A fro-American culture today after
250years. If one can isolate those unique
w ords, names, phrases or customs within
on e's fam ily interviews and notes, they
m ay be the key to unlocking the secret
to an A frican ancestor’s tribe and/or
country o f origin. A lex H aley did it, by
studying his ancestor’s nam e "K unte
Kinte" from the' RiverKam by Bilongo.”
I finally was able to do it too, about two
years ago, w hen I discovered the estate
inventory o f m y fam ily’s slaveholder
w hich listed slaves on it having A frican
names. H ow can you do it? L ook for
these clues:
1.F E D E R A L C E N S U S F R E E /
SLAVE SCHEDULE: SinceAfio Ameri­
cans w ere not considered U.S. citizens
until the passage o f the fourteenth
A m endm ent, they w ere not included
into the “free” population federal cen­
sus schedules o f 1790-1860. The only
exceptions to this were if any Afro
A m ericans had received "m anum is­
sion”, a term used for those w ho had
been "legally” freed from slavery in the
courts, either by purchasing their ow n
freedom, special service, orstipulated in
the last will and testam ent o f a slave
ow ner upon his o r her death. Thus,
those w ho w ere m anum itted were re­
corded o n the census along with the rest
ofth e free population in the normal way:
name, age, gender, nationality, occupa­
tion, value o f real personal estate, and
other statistical information. So it’s a
good idea to check to see if any o f o n e’s
family m em bers were recorded as being
free. Ifso , then check the courts for any
m anum ission records.
However, ifyour family was not free,
then they w ere recorded onto the federal
cen su s slave schedules. T he slave
schedules w ent by the nam e o f each
slaveholder, follow ed by the listing o f
each o f their slaves, recording the slave ’ s
age, gender, and som etimes a rem ark
about their description. The slave’s name
w ould not be listed. The slave’s nam e
w ould be listed, how ever, if they died
w ithin the calendar year before the cen­
sus w as taken, and put on a special list
called the M ortality Schedule, listing the
name, age, gender and cause o f death.
Y ou m ight ask: W hat good is it to exam ­
ine the slave schedules if m y ancestor’s
nam e is not listed? The value o f the slave
schedules is that if you can locate your
fam ily on it under the slaveholder’s
name, then the ages and genders o f all
o f the slaveholder’s slaves can be com ­
pared to the ages, genders and nam es o f
your fam ily taken from the 1870census.
In other w ords, use it for verification
purposes. A lso, thousands o f B lack
A m ericans died before 1870. The slave
schedule m ay be one o f the few recorded
docum ents that you m ight find on your
fam ily during the slavery period. The
ages on the slave schedules also helps
you determ ine tim e o f birth, as well as
w hat time period you m ay need to go
back to on a particular ow ner’s family,
especially ifyour ancestors were “inher­
ited’ ’ dow n through the sam e family. F or
exam ple, suppose you located under
the slaveholder nam e o f Mr.________ ,
your great-grandfather w ho was bom in
1845 on the 1850 slave schedule. H e
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Stephen Hanks
(Below) 4 map of ancient Africa
Americans w ho w ere bom in foe United
States to S ierra L eone and L iberia.
The story in m y fam ily is that one o f
m y great-great g ran d m o th er’s rela­
tives w as a school teacher w ho w ent
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n e c e s s a r i
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to A frica during the 1920’s an d cam e
back describing his trip to his school
class. I am still w aiting for docum enta­
tion to prove i f this is true. I f you have
reason to believe an ancesto r im m i­
grated to A frica, w rite to foe N ational
A rchives for passport records p rio r to
1923. For passport a fter 1923, w rite to
The Dept. o fS ta te , W ashington, D .C.
I f he o r she im m igrated through a
colonization society, see i f you can
locate l ts records. T he 4 1” floor at PS U ’ s
library has books on so m e o f the so ci­
eties.
W hatever country y o u r ancestors
cam e from , their experiences, beliefs,
stories, custom s and personalities are
part o f you. W hether you succeed in
m aking that co n nection to A frica o r
not, em brace y o u r p resen t rich, w o n ­
derful heritage that is w ith you now
and appreciate the struggles and risks
your fam ily took to p av e y o u r birth.
IAKE A BAKE PIZZA
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ships. Particularly to Jam aica w ere
brought A fricans from Ghana, called in
the pages o f Jam aican history as “M a­
roons” o r “C orom antees” because
many o f them were purchased and put
on board ships docked at the G old coast
slave port called Corm anune M any o f
these A fricans from G haaa escaped in
Jam aica and fled into the woods, d e ­
fending them selves from recapture by
the British soldiers. After m any wars,
finally a treaty w as signed. la te r many o f
these "M aroons” w ere transported to
Nova Scotia, C anada andS ierra Leone,
W est Africa. D oes your family tree lead
to these countries?
4.S L A V E S H IP R E C O R D S : C er­
tain A m erican coastal port ship regis­
tries or m anifests can be obtained
through the N atio n al A rch iv es in
W ashington, D .C. for selected tim e
periods. O th er ship records can be
obtained by visitm g theS tate A rchive
Library o f interest and exam ining the
C ounty C ourt m inutes or C ounty O r­
der B ooks, o f the particular county
you are focusing in on. I f you can get
the C ourt M inutes in book form , usu­
ally m ost state libraries (located u su ­
ally in the C apitol city) have the ab­
stracts, w ith the nam es o f ships listed
in the index. O f course, not all ships
entering a county w ere slave ships.
T hat is som ething you w ill have to
determ ine. Slave ship arrivals w ere
also advertised in tow n new spapers,
as w ell as w hat A frican region the ship
and the A fricans cam e from.
5. W E S T A F R IC A N C O A S T A R ­
E A S: W hen exam ining the slave trade
ship records o r new spaper advertise­
m ents, certain term s w ere u sed refer­
ring to d ifferent regions o f A frica that
are no longer used. H ere are som e o f
the term s and their equivalent m ean ­
ings today:
G old C oast= G hana; G uinea= T he
W est coast line from S enegal to The
C ongo; Ivory C oast= C ote d ’ Ivorie;
W in d w a rd C o a s t= S ie r r a L e o n e ,
Liberia, and C ote d ’ Ivorie; G rain Pep-
perC oast=L iberia. Finally, the C oloni­
zation M ovem ents during the 19 th cen­
tury transported thousands o f B lack
papa fyur/jfufj
P eô ft u A fty
S p e c ia l
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w ould have been listed as : “ 1 male, 5
years.” But suppose you also see listed
under that sam e slaveholder’s nam e an
Afro A m erican listed as being 65 years
old. That should alert you to check the
family records ofM r._________ at least
to 1785.
2. F A M IL Y N A M E S : Are there any
names in your family, or nicknam es, that
sound A frican? G et a hold o f books on
African nam es at the public library or
Portland State University, and see ifyou
can find w hat languages those nam es
cam e from Check the original meanings
and root w ords for those fam ily nick­
nam es that have been passed dow n in
the family Chances are they were passed
dow n through slavery. Look them up in
a copy o f W ebster’s N ew International
Dictionary w hich you can also order and
purchase through a book store. Som e o f
my great uncles' nicknam es were ones
that pointed to unique phrases and child­
nam ing custom s o f a certain language
and tribes in Africa. African child-nam ­
ing custom s centered around nam ing
their children by the day o f w eek bom ,
time o f day bom , season o f birth and
order o f birth. Check the m eaning and
origin o f any A frican -so unding nam es
found from estate inventories, last wills
and testam ents and slave bills o f sale.
3. R E G IO N A L A R E A S: EastCoast
black com m unities in the Carolinas,
G eorgia and Florida have been docu­
mented and written about concerning a
unique languagedialectcalled“Gullah”,
a fusion o f different A frican language
w ords created by African slaves o f dif­
ferent tribes, w ho found them selves
w orking together on the coastal rice
plantations, in order to com m unicate to
one another. M any words o f this lan­
guage can be traced to specific A frican
regions. A nother dialect created by
Africans brought to G eorgia, w as called
‘ ‘G eechee’ ’. Descendents ofboth Gullah
and G eechee still speak those unique
w ords and phrases. Does your research
show that your family descended from
these East coast areas? Similarly, in Loui­
siana and low er A labam a & M ississippi
is found the Creole dialect, created by
descendents from A frica and the W est
Indies. For example, the w ord“ Sam ba”,
the nam e o f a popular dance, is from the
W o lo f language.
The Islands o f the W est Indies and
M exico w ere also stops o f the slave
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