Finding the Names, Volume One, Installment 3: New Orleans Inward Manifests, 1819–1820

By Okey and Susan Barker. FREE — please share.

Installment 3 of a name-by-name transcription of the slave ship manifests filed at the port of New Orleans, made by hand from the original records at the National Archives (Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36, Microfilm M1895, Roll 1, images 250–369). 85 pages, 6x9, large print.

Inside: 264 people on 45 manifests — the last inward voyages of 1819 and the first of 1820, from Baltimore, Norfolk, Richmond, Charleston, Mobile, Philadelphia, and Alexandria. Each entry gives the person's name exactly as the clerk wrote it, with sex, age, height, the record's own class column, shipper/owner and residence, plus ship, master, ports, and date — and a full index of names tied to the Archives scan numbers.

One page here is unlike the rest: the ship Franklin's manifest for Hetty, 45, and her infant is headed with one handwritten word — 'free' — the 'sold as Slaves' clause struck out, the inspector's note recording that he had seen her certificate of freedom. Elsewhere the papers are harder: two children on the Laura Townes' list were found not on board, with other children in their place; Henry Garretson's name is struck through with the word 'deserted'; a sworn statement says young Sam was shipped south for trying to escape to the Northern States; five people on the brig Actress were 'retained on Shore'; and Dinah travels with her children Flora, Anna, and her twelve-month-old twins. The installment's art page carries David Drake's signed poem jar of 1858, released free by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

With Installments 1 and 2, the project now holds 1,320 people. The whole New Orleans series holds roughly 114,000 name entries, and more installments will follow, voyage by voyage — all free. The companion guide and the growing Complete Set (everything in one download) are also free in this store.

If your family came through New Orleans, this is a place to look. Please share this freely — that is what it is for.