Family separation among slaves in America was shockingly prevalent

Slavery devastated not just individual victims but entire families. “Grandmother drowned herself in the river when she heard that grand-pap was going away,” recalled Mary James, a former slave, in 1937 about the sudden sale of her grandfather.

Separation of slave families was routine in the antebellum American South. “Don’t buy families,” Theophilus Freeman, a slave trader in New Orleans, once wrote to a colleague, “as there is not a single [customer] here to buy” them. Good data on the frequency of this practice are hard to find. In a sample of nearly 1,500 interviews with freed slaves in the 1930s, 40% of those born into slavery in two-parent households said they had lost a parent (via separation or death) by the age of 20. But a new dataset suggests that this estimate may be too low.

Domestic slave population, m

United States

Slaves disembarking, ’000

Selected regions

100

Congress bans

slave imports

Congress bans

slave imports

Mainland North America

Brazil

Caribbean

1650

1700

1750

1800

1850

1790

1800

1820

1840

1860

The numbers come from a lesser-known corner of this grim industry: America’s domestic maritime slave trade. Records of transatlantic voyages reveal little about American slavery in the 19th century, because Congress prohibited imports from abroad—viewed as a particular evil by opponents of slavery, and as unnecessary by some supporters—as soon as a constitutional clause precluding such a ban expired.

Unlike in the rest of the Americas, the slave population in the United States was self-sustaining. Owners forced slaves to have children against their will. Between 1820 and 1860 around 1m were shipped across state lines. Most went from the Upper South, where crop output was shifting from tobacco to wheat, to the Deep South, where cotton production, made profitable by newly-invented machinery, pushed slave-owning planters to bring ever more land into cultivation.

Share of population enslaved in 1860, %

No data

None

Baltimore

OHIO

ILLINOIS

INDIANA

Alexandria

KANSAS

TERRITORY

KANSAS

TERRITORY

Richmond

VIRGINIA

MISSOURI

KENTUCKY

Petersburg

Norfolk

N. CAROLINA

INDIAN

TERRITORY

INDIAN

TERRITORY

TENNESSEE

ARKANSAS

S. CAROLINA

Charleston

ALABAMA

GEORGIA

MISSISSIPPI

LOUISIANA

Savannah

TEXAS

Mobile

Jacksonville

Pensacola

St. Marks

St. Augustine

Galveston^†

St. Joseph

New Orleans

New Smyrna

Indianola^†

Cedar Key

FLORIDA

Tampa

Slaves transported to New Orleans, 1818-60*

2,000

10,000

20,000

Key West

*Named in voyage manifests.Trade routes are illustrative

^†Texas joined the US in 1845

Most of these transfers were probably on foot, and were not systematically recorded. But the captains of ships carrying slaves along the coast were required to file manifests listing their captives by name. Of an estimated 100,000 slaves sent to Louisiana on such ships in 1818-60, Jennie K. Williams of the University of Virginia has identified 63,500 using these manifests.

The documents list slaves’ age, sex, height and skin colour (which was usually just “black”, but sometimes more detailed, as in “two shades lighter than black” or “rather darker than James”). They contain both first names, which were often biblical—Moses, who led his people out of bondage, appears 420 times—and, crucially, surnames.

Peter 35

Sarah 23 Eliza 7

Nancy 23

•

George 20

•

Bettey 19

Dick 20

Rebecca 18

Frisby 17

Joshua 9

Margaret 19

Harriet 19

Henny 19

Henny 14

Phoebe 16

Hannah 18

•

William K. 17 Mary Ann 16

•

Joseph 20

Edward 20

Peter 25

Jacob 16

Sam 25

Cassy 15

••

Martha 18

Henry 16

Harriet 16

•

Matilda 16 Matilda's infant 0

Malinda 17

•

Ann 18

••

Brigit 17

Isaac 13

George 19

Rachel 17

Henry 24

Louisa 16

Ann Maria 17

Thomas 24

Frisby 12

Florah 30 Becky 10

•

Cassey 15

Mariah 16

Margaret 16

James 21

Richard 20

Isabella 17

••

Nelson 18

Levi 28

Mahaly 11

Nicholas 20

•••••

James 19

•••

Peter 24

••

Wesley 18

Henry 21

Charles 19

Nicholas 20

Jacob 19

Lindsey 20

Affy 22 Lettice 13 Martha 13

•••••

Betsy 11 Nancy 8 William 5 Francis 0 Rachael

Jinny 19

Isaac 20

George 24

John 20

George 23

Easter 25

Luke 21

Sophy 13

Leah 14

Daniel 25

Alexander 22

Jim 20

Jack 20

Dolly 13

Lewis 20

•

Samuel 26

•••••••

Judy 18

••

Henrietta 14

Lucinda 15

Ellen 17

Sam 22

Minty 14

Janet 14

John 19

Sally 19

Charles 23

•

Lewis 20 Easter 16

Abraham 21 Cassandra 16

Edward 22

Jenny 15

Richard 20

Abraham 16

John 23

Mary 19

Jerry 19

Wilson 14 Anny 12

Jacob 23

Harrison 21

Pochahantus 15

••

Frank 16

Jane 22

•

Nancy 20

•••

Harriet 17

Fanny 22

Beverly 13

Bob 18 Sarah 15

Bill 22

Lewis 22

Matilda 18

•

Hannah 18

Charlotte 12

Harriet Ann 16

Jordan 20

Thomas 18

•••

Mareena 18

•••••

Levin 20

••

Washington 20

•

Sarah Ann 12

Sarah Ann 15

Mary 15

Larkin 20

John 14

London 20

Jacob

James 19

Tom 22

Henry 18

Eliza 19

Ezekiel

Caroline 28

David 13

William

Arimintia 32

••

Charity 17

Henry 21

•

Lucy 13

•••

William 12

Fanny 17

Harry 14

Sam 21

Susan 12

Nace 18

Joseph 25

Ann 15

•••

Caroline 12

•••••

Bob 21 Elizabeth 15

Nat 21

•

William 25

••

Tom 19

•••

Nicholas 10

•

Beckey 12

••••

George 16

••

Tom 18

•••

Sam 21

Leroy 27

Anthony 21

Martha 20

Mansfield 20

Maddison 25

Caroline 10

Lydia Ann 18

Thomas 24

Sampson 25

William 22

Cyrus 24

Agness 24

Nelly 19

Peire 19

Jonas 13

Thomas 22

Abraham 22

George 20

Mary 35 Ellin Jain Mariah Sara Ann

Edward 16

•••

Samuel 22

Nathan 17

Joe 24 Violet 17

Randall 21

••••

Archer 22

Sicily 35

George 23

Edmund 24

Henry James 18

Robert 19

Albert 24

Reubin 16

Plummer 20

•

Osborne 22

••

Peggy 18 Hannah 17

Eliza 19 Martha 16

Sam 20

Mary 18

Nicholas 14

Patrick 24

John 23

Jacob 20

Letty 28

Phill 20

William 15

William 21

Mitchell 18

•

Lucy 16

••

Meritt 21

Amos 21

Jacob 18

Sam 18

•

Kit 19

•

Henry 30

•

Lavinia 20

Harriett Ann 14

•

Rebecca 30

••

Hester Ann 17

Sandy 21

Mary Jane 17

Peter 15

••

Jane 18

John H. 25

••

Rocker 22

James 24

Ezekiel 22

Henry 27

Daniel 21

Ann 16

••

Sally Ann 15

William 17

John 28

John 23

Martha Jane 17

Squire 18

Dicey (Lucey) 25 Marcellas 5 Alexander 3 infant 0

•

Wright 18

•

George 21

••

Morton 12

•

Sam 20

Rose 21

Emeline 16

Simon 21

Sam 14

Jane 24

William 22

Harry 19

Jane 16

Charlotte 20

John 4

Manda 22

Amy 20

Tom 12

•

Henry 17

••

John 20

•

Sarah 18

Minerva 14

James 17

Harry 21

John 20

Dick 18

Julia Ann 19

Henry 17

Hester 17

Charles 20

••••

William 21

Littleton 20

Martha 20

Mary 14

Martha Ann 23 Henry 22

Samuel 22

Lucinda 18

Louisa 32

Diannah 18

Benjamin 19

James 21 Nelson 18

Henry 12

•••

Lucy 13

•

Isaac 21 Norman 20

George 18

Amey Ann 14

Ann 24 Ann's daughter Cordelia 0

Louisa 17

Washington 16

Louisa 18

William 23

Martha 22

Charles 17

Louisa 18

John 28 Sarah 25 John 10 Frances 8

Delphia 18

James 21

Phillip 20

Margarett 22

•

Sarah 22

David 22

Marinda 18

•

Simon 17

Eliza 17

John 21

Ben 21

Harriett 17

Nancy 18

Edmund 14

•

George 10

•

Noah 22

•

Samuel 22

William 21

David 13

Henry 19

••

Ms Williams traced the voyages of 334 people transported and sold through New Orleans between 1825 and 1848.

About a third of these people are under the age of 18. The average age in this sample is only 19 years. This may be an overestimate: children were sometimes falsely described as older to meet the minimum age required for transporting.

Two women gave birth while imprisoned in New Orleans awaiting sale.

Around 65% of slaves in these records were transported with no family at all. For the rest, Ms Williams reconstructed the likely family groups from surnames in the shipping records. Dots stand for additional family members outside the sample whose names are unknown.

Families that did get shipped as a group were unlikely to remain intact after sale. Of slaves who travelled with relatives, a further 65% were split up, either partly or entirely, once they reached New Orleans.

All told, a staggering 88% suffered separation from their immediate family.

Estimating how many families reunited after emancipation—celebrated on June 19th, “Juneteenth”, which is now a federal holiday—is even harder. After the civil war, black newspapers filled up with advertisements seeking lost relatives. In 1880 Celia Rhodes placed one stating a “wish to inquire about my people...I left them in a trader’s yard in Alexandria, with a Mr Franklin. They were to be sent to New Orleans. Their names were Jarvis, Moses, George and Maria Gains.” According to the dataset, Moses was 5’8” tall and 24 years old when he boarded the Uncas in 1836. No one knows if they ever found each other.■

Moses Gaines named on a ship manifest in 1836.
Image: US National Archives

There is some uncertainty linking people in records of sale with shipping records, and in identifying family relationships. Probable relations were determined by grouping people transported on the same boat sharing a surname.

Sources: “Oceans of Kinfolk”, by Jennie K. Williams, 2021; IPUMS; slavevoyages.org

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