Detail from “A List of the Number of White and Black persons in each Family in Lancaster County. May 1783. And in the Seventh Year of our Independance.”

It is difficult to find even one transcribed tax or census return for Lancaster County in the years between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. To create SlavePlaces forty of them were transcribed, containing over 14,000 handwritten rows of information, each beginning with the name of a householder. The result is a cornucopia of information pertaining to almost everyone - enslaved black, free black, and white - who lived in Lancaster between 1785 and 1860.

We hope this online resource will benefit persons whose interests range from researching their own ancestry to getting answers to questions like these:

Which persons held large plantations, smaller tracts of land, or no land at all? How were the enslaved families distributed on those homeplaces? Did any free blacks own land?

Were most of the white families rich, poor or in the middle? Did most black households live and work with the rich, the poor or in between?

Were most black and white homes made up of adults and children?  Were there many all-male or all-female households? Can we see just where the homes were, both black and white? Upon a creek? Near a mill?

How did any of these matters change over time?

It will be “all good” if SlavePlaces helps any visitor on an historical or genealogical quest – Enslaved Black, Free Black or White – find answers to their questions or a new path to look for them. SlavePlaces was compiled of and contains everyone’s places in Lancaster County, Virginia.

Go to SlavePlaces of Lancaster County, 1785-1860