Registration template for Free Negro Registry

Registration template for Free Negro Registry

Template for written format of registering free blacks, found in Amherst County records

Many of the individuals named in freedom documents can be found listed in county or city Free Negro Registries. Though these registration requirements were antithetical to liberty and a restriction on the freedom of movement for free African Americans of the time, this documentation now enables historians, genealogists and researchers to follow the lives of freedmen through the years. Many manumitted individuals were freed with only a first name listed in the freedom document, but when registered a first and last name can be found, as well as notes on physical description, and even family relations (such as name of parents), which can be very beneficial for researchers and genealogists today.

Most of these registries start on a page number other than "1" as the previous pages are either blank, missing or have some notes or writing that do not include any information regarding the freedmen of the locality. We have included all pertinent pages we were able to obtain. Some jurisdictions kept much more detailed records than others, while there were also differences in population totals of freedpeople from one locality to the next. It should be noted that historians have surmised that only some lesser percentage of all freedpeople in a jurisdiction ever registered.