Are you interested in working on this project in your home community and have a question? Email Deborah Miles at [email protected]
“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.
http://www.diversityed.org/exhibits/an-unmarked-trail/
“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. These deeds are now searchable from any computer in the world.
http://www.buncombecounty.org/Governing/Depts/RegisterDeeds/Genealogy_SlaveDeeds.aspx
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 including:
In Wilmington, Cape Fear Community College worked with the New Hanover County Register of Deeds to index 1,000’s of deeds: http://libguides.cfcc.edu/deeds
In Statesville, the Iredell County Register of Deeds provides this resource:
http://www.co.iredell.nc.us/Departments/RegDeeds/forms/Iredell_Slave_Deed_Index.pdf
How to Promote Transparency in Your County
This YouTube 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.http://www.ehistory.org/projects/people-not-property.html
Additional Resources on Slave Labor in Buncombe County:
Sarah Gudger was interviewed in 1938, at the age of 121, by the Federal Writer’s Project Slave Narratives. To view the transcript clik here:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices03.html
Actor Becky Stone shares a narrated account of the transcript
Sarah Gudger’s Bill of Sale was located in the Buncombe County Register of Deeds through this project. Hemphill buys a slave named Sarah
Buncombe County produced an award winning video to describe the importance of the collection:
Additional Classroom Resources
Ten Principles for Teaching about Slavery in a Context
Buncombe County Slave Deeds as Primary Source Documents