Finding the Names, Vol. One, Installment 14 — New Orleans Inward Manifests, 1822 (Continued)

Installment 14 of Finding the Names, Volume One — 364 more entries transcribed name by name from the original 1822 New Orleans ship manifests at the National Archives (Microfilm M1895, Roll 2, images 361–480). 140 pages, large print. FREE — please share it so families can find their people.

The lead story of this installment: Polly Gray bought her own daughters. The ship Schuylkill's manifest out of Baltimore is headed "a mother & two daughters, all free, going to their Father, in New Orleans, Toby Gray, a free Man." Polly, 50, swore the oath herself — its printed words altered by hand so the three "are not held to Service or Labour, as Slaves, and are entitled to freedom" — and signed with her mark. A clerk pencilled his doubts on the page: the girls "appear to be slaves by birth — the Mother has recently purchased them in City of Washington." She carried Mary Ann, 16, and Louisa, 13, home to their father.

Also in these pages: the brig Eros lost four of her forty-two — two infants died on the passage, and two were taken off, one of them a woman named Eve whose name was blotted clean out of her table and survives only in the inspector's report; a pencilled claim on the schooner Ann — "John says he is a free Man"; a man aboard the Angelina with no manifest at all, whom no paper ever named; four men taken off the Huntress by the Sheriff of New Orleans; three small children (Betsey about 6, Nancy 6½, Henry 5) shipped as term slaves, with five more children on the same sailing; and the brig Brazillian's manifest, written out twice — the two copies disagreeing about ages and even about a name.

Counting this installment, the Finding the Names project has recovered 6,811 entries from the New Orleans manifests, every one free. The companion guide and the Complete Set (Installments 1–14 in one download) are also free in this store.