LibGuides Home: New Haven County Court Records: African American & Indigenous History

Books

African American Connecticut Explored by Elizabeth J. Normen (Editor); Katherine J. Harris (Other); Stacey K. Close (Other); Wm. Frank Mitchell (Other); Olivia White (Other)
Call Number: Stacks E185.93.C7 A47 2013 Item does not circulate. In-house use only.
ISBN: 0819573981
Publication Date: 2014-01-27
LibGuides: Essays by many of Connecticut's leading historians document an array of subjects in African American history, beginning from the earliest years of the state's colonization around 1630 and continuing well into the 20th century.
Black Roots in Southeastern Connecticut, 1650-1900 by Barbara W. Brown; James M. Rose
Call Number: E185.93.C7 B76 1980
ISBN: 0960774459
Publication Date: 2001-02-01
LibGuides: A genealogy of Black individuals and families in southeastern Connecticut spanning from 1650-1900. Volume 8 of the Gale Genealogy and Local History Series.
Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England by William D. Piersen
Call Number: E185.917 .P54 1988
ISBN: 0870235877
Publication Date: 1988-01-07
LibGuides: William D. Piersen examines the development of an Afro-American subculture in eighteenth-century New England through anaylzing the processes of cultural change and creation from the Black bondsman's point of view. Despite the strictures of bondage, the Black Yankees of eighteenth-century New England created a sustaining folk culture of their own.
Connecticut's Black Soldiers 1775-1783 by David O. White
Call Number: Conn Doc Am35 cb no.4 c.5
ISBN: 0871061198
Publication Date: 1973
LibGuides: David O. White examines the history of Connecticut's Black soldiers who served in the American Revolution. Book includes list of soldiers, town served, dates of service, and whether they were pensioners, seamen, or marines.
Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples by Lucianne Lavin; Paul Grant-Costa (Contribution by); Rosemary Volpe (Editor)
Call Number: E78.C7 L36 2013
ISBN: 9780300186642
Publication Date: 2013-06-25
LibGuides: A volume on the rich 13,000-plus-year history and culture of Connecticut's indigenous peoples. Lucianne Lavin draws on new archaeological and ethnographic discoveries, interviews with Native Americans, rare documents including periodicals, archaeological reports, master's theses and doctoral dissertations, conference papers, newspapers, and government records, as well as her own ongoing archaeological and documentary research.
For Adam's Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England by Allegra Di Bonaventura
Call Number: F104.N7 D5 2013
ISBN: 9780871404305
Publication Date: 2013-04-22
LibGuides: In this narrative of family life and the slave experience in the colonial North, Allegra di Bonaventura describes the complexity of the master/slave relationship between Joshua Hempstead and Adam Jackson, and traces the intertwining stories of the Hempstead and Jackson families until the eve of the Revolution.
The Logbooks: Connecticut's Slave Ships and Human Memory by Anne Farrow
Call Number: E445.C7 F37 2014
ISBN: 9780819573056
Publication Date: 2014-10-07
LibGuides: In 1757, a sailing ship owned by an affluent Connecticut merchant sailed from New London to the tiny island of Bence in Sierra Leone, West Africa, to take on fresh water and slaves. Anne Farrow discovered the ship's logbooks around the same time her mother was diagnosed with dementia. As Farrow bore witness to the impact of memory loss on her mother's sense of self, she also began a journey into the world of the logbooks and the Atlantic slave trade, eventually retracing part of the Africa's long-ago voyage to Sierra Leone. The Logbooks explores this voyage to unearth new realities of Connecticut's slave trade and question how we could have forgotten this part of our past so completely.
Maladies of Empire by Jim Downs
Call Number: online access through EBSCOhost
ISBN: 0674971728
Publication Date: 2021-09-07
LibGuides: A global history that looks beyond European urban centers to show how slavery, colonialism, and war propelled the development of modern medicine. Reexamining the foundations of modern medicine, Jim Downs demonstrates that the study of infectious disease depended crucially on the unrecognized contributions of nonconsenting subjects--conscripted soldiers, enslaved people, and subjects of empire. Plantations, slave ships, and battlefields were the laboratories in which physicians came to understand the spread of disease.
Native People of Southern New England, 1650-1775 by Kathleen J. Bragdon
Call Number: E78.N5 B732 2009
ISBN: 9780806140049
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
LibGuides: Despite the popular assumption that Native American cultures in New England declined after Europeans arrived, evidence suggests that Indigenous communities continued to thrive alongside English colonists. In this sequel to her Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650, Kathleen J. Bragdon continues the Indigenous story through the end of the colonial era and documents the impact of colonization.
New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren
Call Number: E446 .W26 2017
ISBN: 9781631493249
Publication Date: 2017-05-09
LibGuides: While earlier histories of slavery largely confine themselves to the South, Wendy Warren's exploration links the growth of the northern colonies to the slave trade and examines the complicity of New England's leading families, demonstrating how the region's economy derived its vitality from the slave trading ships coursing through its ports.
Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780-1880 by Daniel R. Mandell
Call Number: E78.N5 M36 2008
ISBN: 9780801886942
Publication Date: 2008-02-04
LibGuides: Daniel R. Mandell examines Indigenous communities in southern New England between the Revolution and Reconstruction, when Indigenous peoples lived in the region's socioeconomic margins, moved between semiautonomous communities and towns, and intermarried extensively with blacks and whites.

For additional print resources, please see a librarian or search our catalog.

Websites

General Research Guides

Research guides compiled by the Connecticut State Library and other organizations.

Conscientious Description

Resources to find culturally sensitive terminology and descriptions of ancestral, racial, ethnic, and gender identity.

Slavery and Servitude

Information about slavery and servitude in Connecticut and New England, as well as the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Connecticut Explored: Slavery in Connecticut
Connecticut Probate Records
Under chattel slavery, people were listed in estate inventories. Wills and probate records can be a valuable resource for tracing enslaved individuals.
Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Yale Slavery and Abolition Portal

Emancipation and Freedom

Information about emancipation and freedom in Connecticut and New England, as well as the emergence of free Black communities.

Other Items of Interest

Articles

Menschel, David. “Abolition Without Deliverance: The Law of Connecticut Slavery 1784-1848.” The Yale Law Journal 111, no. 1 (2001): 183-222. https://doi.org/10.2307/797518.

Naumec, David J. “Connecticut Indians in the War of Independence.” Connecticut History Review 47, no. 2 2008 (Fall 2008): 181-218. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44369867.

Documents

Genealogy

List of Black and African American Names
First names and surnames of Black, African American, and African-descended persons who appear in the court records, served in the American Revolution, or were known to have lived in Connecticut. Also includes known Black Governors in New Haven County.
List of Indigenous Names
First names and surnames of Indigenous persons who appear in the court records, served in the American Revolution, or were known to have lived in Connecticut and/or southern New England.

New Haven County Court Records: African American & Indigenous History