Don’t stop your family history search at the Emancipation
Proclamation. Use these techniques to discover African-American
roots obscured by slavery. MY third-great-grandfather Lewis
Carter was born about 1817 in Virginia and spent most of his
life there. The 1870 census shows him living in that state’s
Madison County with his wife and six children. He was a farmhand
with real estate valued at $4,700 and personal property worth
$1,150. Such substantial holdings aren’t bad for a “mulatto” so
soon after the end of slavery. Was Lewis Carter freed before the
Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863? Did a former
master reward his work with this land? Had my third-great-
grandfather scraped together enough money to buy property? My
search for the truth about Lewis Carter arose from a curiosity
familiar to many African-Americans: Where did my ancestors come
from? What were their experiences in slavery? Slavery has
clouded the answers to these questions, but it hasn’t erased
them entirely. These resources and str