Free African Americans of NC, VA, SC - From the Colonial Period to About 1820 - 2 volume set - 5th Edition by Paul Heinegg

Whichever direction free people of color migrated or however they maintained their precarious freedom in the American South, Paul Heinegg's work is an indispensable source to understand their travail. Like his earlier books, this expanded edition, opens yet new avenues to explore the lives of free people of color.

The genealogies in this book comprise the colonial history of the majority of the free African American families of Virginia and North Carolina, reveal several facets of American colonial history previously overlooked by historians:

• Most families were the descendants of white servant women who had children by slaves or free African Americans.
• Many descended from slaves who were freed before the 1723 Virginia law which required legislative approval for manumissions. Families like Gowen, Cumbo, and diggers who were free in the mid-seventeenth century had several hundred members before the end of the colonial period.
• Very few free families descended from white slave owners who had children by their slaves, perhaps as low as 1% of the total.
• Many free African American families in colonial North Carolina and Virginia were landowners who were generally accepted by their white neighbors.
• Free Indians blended into the free African American communities. They did not form heir own separate communities.
• Some of the light-skinned descendants of free African Americans formed the tri-racial isolates of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Louisiana.

This two volume set is packed with historical facts, family histories, family names, and tidbits of interesting historical facts. It would be a great addition to your genealogy shelf.