The Race & Slavery Petitions project, part of the Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) at UNC Greensboro, is a searchable database derived from extensive research spanning 18 years. It aggregates data from 2,975 legislative petitions and 14,512 county court petitions filed between 1775 and 1867 across the fifteen slaveholding states and the District of Columbia.
This remarkable collection includes detailed information on approximately 150,000 individuals, comprising about 80,000 enslaved people, 8,000 free people of color, and 62,000 whites. The database is richly annotated with metadata from diverse sources such as wills, inventories, deeds, bills of sale, depositions, and court proceedings, offering granular insights into the legal and social dimensions of slavery in early America.
Designed as a research tool for scholars, genealogists, educators, and the public, this initiative was supported by a “We the People” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and led by Loren Schweninger in collaboration with the ERIT department and University Libraries.
