Arkansas African American Records

Biographies

Aaron Hurvey - Aaron Hurvey, an escaped slave, is one of 5,526 recorded black soldiers who joined the Union Army in Arkansas during the Civil War.

Henry Turner - He was born a slave in northern Mississippi near the small towns of Red Banks and Byhalia, was the property of his owner, Edmond Turner, and was brought to Phillips County by "his white folks" some months before the war.

Cemeteries

• Arkansas African American Cemeteries Online

• Calhoun County 

  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery

• Drew County

  • Bethel Cemetery

  • Lacey Cemetery

• Little River County

  • Cook Cemetery

• Nevada County

  • De Ann Cemetery

  • Forest Hill Cemetery

  • Sweet Home Cemetery

  • Mt. Vernon Cemetery

  • Snell Cemetery

  • White Church (Waters Chapel) Cemetery

• Ouachita County

  • Cedar Grove Cemetery

  • Eternal Rest Cemetery

  • Good Hope Cemetery

  • Mt. Olive Cemetery

• Pike County -

  • Harrison Chapel Cemetery

• Sebastian County -

  • Cherokee African American Cemetery

• Union County

  • Lott Burgy Cemetery (searchable database)

• Homemakers' Survey of Nevada County Arkansas Cemeteries - A computer database for searching for Nevada county records.

Slave Records

Indenture Bonds for Hempstead, Arkansas

Large Slaveholders of 1860 - Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held is almost non-existent. It is possible to locate an ancestor on a U.S. census for 1860 or earlier and not realize that ancestor was also listed as a slaveholder on the slave schedules, because published indexes almost always do not include the slave census.

• Arkansas
• Chicot
• Desha
• Hempstead
• Jefferson

Sevier County Slaves & Their Owners - James Jr. and his brothers and mother, inherited slaves at the death of father--and it is probable that some of those people came to Arkansas with James Clardy, Jr.

Slaves of the State - Many people have the mistaken impression that slavery was outlawed or abolished in the United States after the civil war by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

1866 Treaty with Cherokee Nation Articles Pertaining to African Cherokee Citizens and Ending Slavery in the Nation - All the Cherokees and freed persons who were formerly slaves to any Cherokee, and all free Negroes not having been such slaves, who resided in the Cherokee Nation prior to June first, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, who may within two years elect not to reside northeast of the Arkansas River.

Slave Data Collection (hosted at Afrigeneas)

Help at Ancestry

The Challenge of African American Research
Conducting successful African American genealogical research can be a challenging adventure. In recent years, the challenge has been lessened and the adventure heightened by the growing body of publications relating to this ethnic group. Special-interest groups and genealogical societies nationwide are publishing key guides, new bibliographies, and important how-to books. Before delving into published sources, however, it is always important to pause long enough to organize one’s own personal papers and review standard research methodology. 

African American Research, Part 1
African American Research, Part 2
African American Research, Part 3: Case Studies
Searching for African American families involves two distinct research approaches. These approaches correspond to the distinct change in the legal status of African Americans in the United States before and after the Civil War. Genealogical techniques used to track slave families before the war are necessarily quite different than those used for white or free African Americans; however, research conducted on African Americans after the war usually involves the same types of records as those used for whites. 

African American Genealogy Program at Indiana Historical Society
Internationally known genealogist Tony Burroughs will present a lecture titled "Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree" at the Indiana Historical Society on February 10, from 1–4 p.m. The program, cosponsored by the IHS and the Indiana African American Genealogy Group, will discuss conducting African American family history research. IHS Program Archivist Wilma Gibbs will present a discussion on research resources available at the IHS and other repositories. 

Finding Your African American Ancestors: A BeginnerÆs Guide
Few areas of American genealogy pose as much challenge as the search for African American ancestry prior to the Civil War. Notwithstanding the inherent difficulties, there are few areas that contain as much unrealized potential. Despite great strides within the last two decades, the basic outlines of the field are only now being clarified. While the difficulties of African American genealogical research are not to be discounted, these difficulties are not always insurmountable. 

Celebrating African American Family History
February is Black History Month in the United States. If you have Black American ancestry, you might want to begin tracing your family tree this month while many museums and archives have special exhibits to mark the month.

History

Ancestry.com Slave Narratives - Free Search
Perhaps no other resource approaches the range of human experience found in Ancestry.com's Slave Narratives. This collection of interviews stands in contrast to other slave narratives that appear in most literature anthologies which were written by the rare few who, against staggering odds, had become literate. This database provides a more poignant picture of what it was to live as a slave in the American South. Taken from The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, this collection is the most complete available picture of the African-American slavery experience. There is simply no other historical document quite like it. The collection contains over 20,000 pages of type-scripted interviews with more than 3,500 former slaves collected over a ten year period. (Requires Ancestry.com Membership)

Arkansas Genealogy