Help With Searching

The Race and Slavery Petitions database is a source of historical, topical, genealogical, and sociological information extracted from petitions filed with the legislatures of twelve Southern states between 1777 and 1867. You can retrieve this information by tailoring the search to your specific needs. Please note that the site will be expanded at a later date to include all petitions filed in select county and district courts of sixteen Southern states between 1777 and 1867.

The site offers both a basic search and an advanced search.

From the Search Petitions page, you can start a basic search by specifying a Subject, and/or State, and/or Filing Year From-To. The database returns a list of records that match the specified criterion or criteria.

Example:
Subject: Abandonment
State: All States
Filing Year: From 1810 To 1819

The database will return records for all included petitions filed in all sixteen states in the years 1810 through 1819.

Each record will be identified by a PAR (Petition Analysis Record) number and will display the following information:

• The location where the petition was found and a location description
• The year the petition was filed
• An abstract of the petition contents

Some subjects are not applicable to the Legislative Series and, thus, will not return any results. Please note that these subjects will yield results when the County Court Series is added to the web site. These subjects include:

• Absentee Owners
• Agriculture
• Alimony
• Banks
• Bigamy
• Black Civil Suit
• Canada
• Casually Lost
• Concealing Slaves
• Distribution of slaves
• Dowry
• Fear of Enslavement
• Feme Sole
• Field Hand
• FPOC Civil Suit
• FPOC frees own Family
• FPOC sues FPOC
• Gambling
• Illegitimacy
• Incest
• Injunction
• Insolvency
• Intra-family Dispute
• Minor Slaveholders
• Prenuptial Agreement
• Purchased for Emancipation
• Separation of Property
• Slave Inventory
• Sodomy
• Term Slaves
• Trading Slaves
• Warranty on Slaves
• White Genealogy
• White Servants
• White/Slave Attachment
• Wife Sues Husband

You then have the option to get a more detailed view of the record by clicking on the PAR number at the top of each record. The more detailed view will include:

• Salutation to the Judge
• County/Parish and/or State where the petition was filed
• Filing date of the case
• Number and name(s) of Petitioners and their slaveholding statuses
• Number and name(s) of Defendants, if relevant
• Number and name(s) of Slaves, if relevant
• Number and name(s) of Free People of Color, if relevant
• List of subjects relating to the petition
• Petition Repository and archival Location Information
• List of related documents annexed to the petition
• Number of pages (petition pages and related document pages)

From that point, you also have the option to return more detailed vital statistics and genealogical information for any of the individuals listed in the selected PAR by clicking on a name. However, the type of information returned from the database does not apply to every individual and, instead, depends upon whether the individual is a Petitioner, Defendant, Slave, or Free Person of Color. For example, only the relatives "of color" of a petitioner or defendant are provided. Additionally, "Age" applies only to Slaves and Free People of Color, whereas "Legal Status" applies only to Petitioners and Defendants.

If you wish to refine your search beyond Subject, State or Year Filed, you can move to Advanced Search from any point in the basic search process. You can also go directly to Advanced Search by selecting Search-By-Name from the Search Petitions page.

The Advanced Search gives you the option to refine your search and to filter the data by entering more specific criteria and combinations of criteria. On the Advanced Search page, you have the same search criteria as on the Search Petitions page. In addition, you can refine your search by State or by specifying a County within a state. You can also search by Name, and/or Gender, and/or Color. If you specify a Name, and/or Gender, and/or Color, you must specify the legal status of the individuals being searched (i.e., Petitioner, Defendant, Slave, Free Person of Color, or Slave Owner).

Example:
Subject: [Blank]
State: Alabama
County: All
Filing Year: From 1810 To 1819

Free Person of Color:
First Name: [Blank]
Last Name: Johnson
Gender: Female

The database will return records for all data base petitions filed in the state of Alabama in the years 1810 through 1819, where a female by the last name of Johnson was identified as a Free Person of Color.

The database will return the same type of information and same level of details as provided in the basic search described above. The process for drilling down to the details will be the same.