What do you know about Manumission Registers?
Answer
Manumission registers are recordings of free African Americans living in Ohio prior to the Civil War. Counties in Ohio kept registers per Ohio state law. The book, Registers of Blacks in the Miami Valley: A Name Abstract,1804-1857 by Stephen Haller and Robert Smith, Jr., provides the following information about the registers:
"From 1804 to 1857, black people in Ohio had to register their freedom papers with the clerk of courts of common pleas in the county where they desired residency or employment. State law required this registration, and clerks of court were to keep register books containing a transcript of each freedom certificate or other written proof of freedom (see Laws of Ohio 1804, page 63-66; 1833, page 22; 1857, page 186). Few of these registers have survived to the 20th century."
The Ohio County Archivists and Records Managers Association has been trying to locate manumission registers in Ohio counties. In addition to the records held by the State Archives, records were reported in Champaign, Clark, Fairfield, Hamilton, Highland, Huron, Mercer, Montgomery, Preble, Union and Warren Counties.
You will find information about Manumission registers in our collections and some information on where to look for Manumission registers on our History blog: What are Manumission Registers?
The following books may also be of interest:
Middleton, Stephen. The Black laws in the Old Northwest: a documentary history. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Middleton, Stephen. The Black laws: race and the legal process in early Ohio. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, c2005.