Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware from the Colonial Period to 1810. Second Edition

For the second edition of Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware, Paul Heinegg has assembled genealogical evidence on more than 400 Maryland and Delaware black families (naming nearly 10,000 individuals), with copious documentation from the federal censuses of 1790-1810 and colonial sources consulted at the Maryland Hall of Records, county archives, and other repositories. In fact, the author has examined all extant court records for Maryland and Delaware for the period under investigation. This second edition of Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware from the Colonial Period to About 1810 is nearly 60% larger than the original. No work that we know of brings together so much information on colonial African Americans, except Mr. Heinegg’s three-volume series on Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which was issued in a new sixth edition earlier this year.  

Among the key findings in this second edition, the author offers documentation proving that most Maryland and Delaware free black families descended from mixed-race children who were themselves the progeny of white women and African American slaves or free blacks. Mr. Heinegg also describes how colonial Maryland laws relating to marriages between offspring of African American and white partners penalized those families. For example, one 18th-century statute threatened a white mother with seven years of servitude and promised to bind her mixed-race offspring until the age of thirty-one. Mr. Heinegg shows that, despite these harsh laws, several hundred child-bearing relationships in Delaware and Maryland took place over the colonial period as evidenced directly from the public record. Maryland families, in particular, which comprise the preponderance of those studied, also had closer relationships with the surrounding slave population than did their counterparts in Delaware, Virginia, or the Carolinas. 

Researchers will find a number of celebrated families in this new edition. These include the Butler family of Maryland, descendants of Eleanor Butler. Another likely descendant of note is civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, whose grandfather appears in the book. Finally, Mr. Heinegg not only covers famed African American scientist Benjamin Banneker, but also has discovered new evidence concerning the latter’s ancestry.

LIST OF FAMILY HISTORIES

Adams, Aldridge, Alexander, Allen, Alsop, Anderson, Annis, Armstrong, Anthony, Armwood, Atkins, Atlow, Badger, Baker, Banks, Banneker, Barber, Bantum, Bardley, Barrett, Barton, Bass, Bates, Batterton, Bean, Beavin, Beckett, Beddo, Bentley, Berry, Bishop, Black, Blake, Boarman, Bond, Bone, Boon, Booth, Boston, Boswell, Boteler, Bowen, Bowser, Brady, Brenning, Brown, Brumejum, Bryan, Bryant, Buckwell, Buley, Burgess, Burke, Burton, Butcher, Butler, Caldwell, Callaman, Cambridge, Campbell, Cann, Cannady, Cannon, Carney, Carr, Carroll, Carter, Carty, Case, Chambers, Chuck, Churb, Clark, Clayton, Coger, Coker, Cole, Collick, Collins, Combest, Conner, Consello, Cook, Cooper, Cornish, Cox, Crass, Crawley, Creek, Cromwell, Cunningham, Curtis, Dalton, Davis, Dawson, Day, Dean, Delaney, Devan, Dias/ Dyer, Dobson, Dodson, Dogan, Donaldson, Douglas, Dove, Downs, Drain, Driggers, Dublin, Duffy, Dulaney, Dunlop, Durham, Dutton, Dyer, Easter, Easton, Edmunds, Elbert, Ellis, England, English, Ennis, Evans, Farmer, Farrell, Farthing, Fenton, Fisher, Fitzgerald, Flamer, Flames, Fletcher, Ford, Fortune, Fountain, Fowler, Francisco, Frazer, Friend, Frost, Gale, Game, Gannon, Gates, George, Gibbs, Gibson, Giles, Grace, Graham, Grant, Graves, Gray, Grayson, Green, Greenwood, Griffin, Grimes, Grinnage, Gurley, Guy, Hackney, Hailey, Hall, Hamilton, Hand, Hanser, Hanson, Harding, Harmon, Harris, Harrison, Harwood, Hawkins, Haws, Haycock, Heath, Hicks, Hill, Hilton, Hinton, Hitchens, Hodgkin/Hodgskin, Holland, Holly, Holmes, Holt, Hopkins, Horner, Houtson, Howard, Howe, Hubbard, Hughes, Hunter, Hynson, Impey, Jackson, Jacobs, Jeffrey, Jervis, Johnson, Jolley, Jones, Kelly, Kersey, King, Knight, Lacount/Lacompt, Lamb, Lantern, Lanthron, Lawder, Lawrence, Leatherby, Lee, Lenkins, Lett, Lewis, Liles, Littlejohn, Lockerman, Longo, McDaniel, McDonald, Madden, Magee, Mahoney, Malavery, Mallory, Marshall, Mason, Massey, Matthews, Mayhew, Mead, Miller, Minor, Mitchell, Molluck, Mongon, Mongom, Monk, Moody, Moore, Morgan, Morris, Mortis, Morton/Molton, Mosely, Mungar, Munt(s), Murray, Myers, Nailor, Natt, Nelson, Newman, Nichols, Norman, Norris, Norwood, Nutts, Okey, , Olive, Onery, Osborne, Overton, Owens, Palmer, Parker, Parkinson, Parsons, Patteron, Peck, Pennington, Penny, Perkins, Perle, Phillips, Pickett, Plowman, Plummer, Poulson, Pratt, Press, Price, Prichard, Pritchett, Pride, Proctor, Proteus, Prout, Puckham, Quander, Queen, Randall, Ray, Reardon, Redding, Reed, Rhoads, Richards, Ridgeway, Risner, Roach, Roads, Roberts, Robinson, Rogers, Rollins, Ross, Rounds, Russell, Rustin, Sammons, Sampson, Saunders, Savoy, Scarlett, Scott, Sheldon, Shaver, Shaw, Shepherd, Shorter, Simiter, Sisco, Skinner, Smith, Smither, Smothers, Snow, Sockum, Songo, Southwood, Sparksman, Spearman, Spencer, Stanley, Stephens, Stevenson, Stewart, Street, Strickland, Suitor, Summers, Swann, Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Tills, Tippett, Toney, Toogood, Trout, Trusty, Tunks, Turner, Upton, Valentine, , Verdin, Walker, Wallace, Wansey, Ward, Waters, Watson, Webber, Webster, Wedge, Welch, Whittam, Wilkins, Wilkinson, Williams, Willis, Wilson, Wingate, Winslow, Wise, Wiseman, Wood, Woodland, Woodward, Wright, Young, and Younger.