Manumission Records of Slaves in Jamaica
One of the terms that many of us that descend from enslaved ancestors know is the word manumission. Manumission is the term used when referencing the freedom of those that were enslaved. The term is used when individuals managed to attain their freedom, whether through the slaveholder freeing them or through the enslaved person purchasing…
Santiago Margarida – 8 Years Old Facing Slavery
While digging through records for Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico in search of my own African ancestors, I came across a record at the end of the book that caught my attention. Another baptism, but a baptism of an African child. I had previously posted about discovering a record of a 10 years old girl from…
Mandingo: Another Child Taken Into Slavery
As I continue to go through the records, telling their story, even if it is tiny in nature, is better to be told than to remain silent. This is the case with Teresa Maysonet. I suspect that she did manage to survive slavery as this line has African descendants I’ve seen in years later on…
Joaquin Hernandez: A Slave Documents Where He Came From!
Many of us wish we could jump into a time machine and change what our ancestors faced. This is the reality of those of us that descend from slavery. Unfortunately, many of us who descend from slavery ended with the person who was enslaved when researching our roots. Sometimes it is impossible to go beyond…
Slavery – Purchase of Freedom in the Caribbean
While going through slave records and researching information on slavery, one of the things that caught my attention was the ability of slaves to purchase their freedom. This of course only exists in certain islands controlled by specific European countries. At one time individuals who escaped slavery from British colonized islands could attain their freedom…
Finding Passengers in the US Virgin Islands 1906 to 1947
I always enjoy speaking to people about Caribbean culture, it’s history, and the information I come across along the way just speaking to people. One such event was speaking to an individual who was giving me a ride back to my place after returning a rental after coming back from a business trip. As we…