People Not Property

Are you interested in working on this project in your home community and have a question? Email Deborah Miles at [email protected]

In 2000, nine students from Asheville, Reynolds, and Roberson High Schools spent the summer in the Buncombe County Register of Deeds identifying microfiche records of Bills of Sale for enslaved people.  Their work, with the support of the Center for Diversity Education, became the basis of an exhibit “An Unmarked Trail: Stories of African Americans in Buncombe County 1850 – 1900”.  In 2012, the newly elected Register of Deeds learned of the student’s work and digitized the records to become the first County in the nation to place the records on-line as an act of pubic transparency.

“An Unmarked Trail: African Americans in Buncombe County”

In 2000, the exhibit “An Unmarked Trail: African Americans in Buncombe County” was created based on high school student research. 10 local students from Asheville, Reynolds, and Roberson High Schools spent the summer in the Buncombe County Record Room locating slave deeds in the Register of Deeds as well as newspaper ads for the sale of slaves from the Pack Memorial Library.

“An Unmarked Trail” has traveled to schools and other institutions since that time.

 

Students and educators researched the primary source documents in archives across the state. Pictured from left to right front row: Destiny Kindell, Keena Norris, Torie Leslie (UNC Asheville intern), Dr. Dolly Mullen (UNC Asheville Literature Professor). Standing from left: Ervin Hunter III, Ashland Thompson, Marcus White, and Bryan Burton

Buncombe County Slave Deeds Placed Online

In 2012, the newly elected Register of Deeds, Drew Reisigner, learned of the existence of the deeds in the county archives from the work of the students. While other “real estate” documents had been digitized and were on the website, the slave deeds had not been included. In an act of transparency, the Buncombe County Slave Deeds were the first in the nation to be placed on line. In addition, the office created an exhibit, Forever Free: that traveled to local libraries, government offices, and non-profits. Forever Free included a video with interview of local citizens and scholars.  The project won numerous awards including the National Association of County Information Officers and the National Council of State Archivists. 

 

 

Other Registries across North Carolina Place Their Deeds Online

Since then, other Registers of Deeds across the 100 counties in NC are working to add these primary source documents to their digital systems. To date the following counties have made these records available on line: 

In Wilmington, Cape Fear Community College worked with the New Hanover County Register of Deeds to index 1,000’s of deeds. 

In Statesville, the Iredell County Register of Deeds provides this resource. 

 

How to Promote Transparency in Your County

This YouTube video instructs educators, students, and all community minded leaders on how to work with local officials to bring these documents to light in all former slave holding states. It was created by an education class at UNC Asheville with the assistance of Dr. Trey Adcock.

People Not Property: National Database for Enslaved People

People Not Property is an emerging partnership between the University of North Carolina, Asheville, the University of Georgia, and Clemson University. The Project will cull county deed books and abstracts across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to find records of the sale and transfer of slaves.These records will then be digitized, transcribed, and made freely available to the public for the first time.

Additional Resources on Slave Labor in Buncombe County

Ten Principles for Teaching about Slavery in a Context

  1. Ensure that every child in your class can maintain their dignity and self-esteem during the teaching of this topic. This includes the developmental readiness of students to understand and critique information according to their age.
  2. Ensure that pupils understand about great African civilizations. Never start with African people as slaves.
  3. Include the stories of African heritage leaders of rebellion and opposition in the Caribbean.
  4. Include the stories of freed African heritage slaves and servants who took part in the fight for abolition.
  5. Ensure that the resources you use do not compound a deficit model.
  6. Include the stories of white abolitionists as role models in the fight against injustice and racism, but do not imply that only white people were responsible for the abolition.
  7. Do not approach the topic from a deficit model of ‘poor, helpless black people in Africa and the Caribbean’.
  8. Place the topic in a context of human rights.
  9. Teach pupils the complex nature of cruelty in the Atlantic slave trade and plantation life.
  10. Take care of your own professional development beforehand; this is a sensitive issue.

(View original source)

Draft Lesson Plan: Slave Deeds as Primary Source Documents

Buncombe County School Teachers and Students Participate

Teacher workshops are an essentail method for preparing teachers to use these primary source documents in the classroom.  In particular, Buncombe County Early College students and teachers have been on the forefront of taking the deeds from script to print. This video tells shares the relevance to the North Carolina Essential Standards and the impact the lessons have on students.  Additional student experience is viewable on this WLOS news show.

Teaching Tolerance Article Shares History of Project

The spring 2015 issue of Teaching Tolerance Magazine included an article by Dr. Trey Adcock, Doing History in Buncombe County. Teaching Tolerance is distributed twice a year to some 450,000 educators around the world. Educators may register to receive this free magazine along with other excellent curriculum materials