From Domesday  to America

the study of a network of English merchant/mariner families and the settlement of America. - Patrick A. Payne

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Known Slave names as encountered in records

Occasionally, we come upon a reference to slaves in the course of our research. As unfortunate as it is, we cannot minimize it by being silent on the subject. This page is dedicated to those men, women, and children in the hopes that it might allow their descendants to find them.

Researching African-American families must be an almost impossible task. The problems a researcher is confronted with are numerous. Their names are often not mentioned in any record other than the impersonal label of "slave." However, sometimes as we read over land patents, wills, and other records, we do catch a name. This page has been established to compile a list of those names, dates, and the records where they can be found. I ask anyone, who in the course of their research, come upon a reference to a slave name, please forward the information on to me to be included here. Make submissions to the list by clicking HERE. (if you do not wish to have your contact information included (e-mail) listed, please indicate that desire in your submission.)

A couple of brief observations. Some of the given names of some slaves I have noticed, could also correspond to surnames, such as with "COOPER," "SPENCER," "SAMPSON,"and Ben "MARTIN" in the records of Thomas PAYNE of Orange County, VA. and Edward PAYNE of Fayette County, KY. Also of note, in cases where ages have been given, a high percentage of the slaves were over the age of 30, if not much older. 10 in the account of Edward PAYNE. At the same time, there were many children- 20 under the age of ten years. Assumming that age 10 was to young to bear responsibility for labor intensive duties, we can imagine the children feeding animals, milking the cows, gathering the eggs, staking firewood, or other tasks typical of chores assigned children today. Let's pray anyway... Also assuming that age 30 was getting to an age were the most physical tasks were becoming to demanding, then out of a total of the 39 slaves, of which their ages are known, only 9 would have remained to bear the major burden of responsibility. The remaining would have worked in the home most likely rather than "in the fields." The portrait of brothers Alexander SPOTSWOOD PAYNE and John Robert DANDRIDGE PAYNE, along with there "nanny" springs to mind. If anyone can shed more light on the subject, please share.

UPDATED: 8/31/99