Finding the Names, Volume One, Installment 9: New Orleans Inward Manifests, 1821 (Continued)

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The ninth installment of Finding the Names, Volume One — our name-by-name transcription of the slave ship manifests filed at the port of New Orleans, taken directly from the original records at the National Archives.

In this installment: 1,061 entries (1,057 of them named) on 57 manifests and documents, Roll 1 images 970–1089 — the largest installment yet. 281 pages, 6x9, large print. With Installments 1–8, the project now holds 4,164 entries.

What the papers themselves say: Once in these thousands of pages, the law steps in before the ship sails. Four people on the brig Emilie's Baltimore manifest — Arthur, 29; Kesiah, 20; her son Josiah, 4; and her daughter Harriette, 18 months — were taken out of the vessel by order of N. Brice, Chief Judge of Baltimore, detained on a complaint made on their behalf. The inspector in New Orleans confirmed it in writing: all four, "not on board." They never made the voyage. Four others were shipped south under an oath admitting they "will be entitled to freedom at the periods of time mentioned in" the shipper's father's will. On the brig Hyperion, an inspector wrote straight across the manifest: "The above named John Carrol says he is an indented servant." Palmira, 27, was taken to Nantes, France, as nurse to her mistress's child, under a passport made so she could be sent home again — described by "small marks of her nation, the Mina," on each temple; the endorsements show she landed. Mima, 9, died on the Sampson's passage; Minta, four months old, died on the Hannah. Sarah, 35, ran away from the Sampson before sailing — and a man named Peter was found answering in another woman's place, with the collector's order: "Permit Peter to be landed." One stretch of Roll 1 remains after this installment.

Art frontispiece: Prince Demah's Portrait of William Duguid, 1773 — Demah, enslaved in Boston, was among the first African American artists in America whose name and work survive. The Metropolitan Museum of Art; CC0.

Every word was transcribed by hand from the National Archives' own scans: Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36, Microfilm Publication M1895, Roll 1 (NAID 173899247). No index and no other book was copied. Names are spelled exactly as the clerks wrote them; uncertain readings are marked [?].

Made to help families find their ancestors. The companion guide and the Complete Set (guide + all installments so far, one download) are also free in this store. Please share freely — that is what it is for.

— Okey and Susan Barker, Trails End, Tiger Mountain, Oklahoma