Manumissions Database, Charleston District, South Carolina (1776-1800)

This database contains all of the manumissions filed in Charleston District from 1776-1800 contained in the Miscellaneous Records section of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. After 1800, South Carolina changed its manumission laws (requiring court approval for manumission), causing the paperwork associated with them to be filed elsewhere (likely with the no longer extent records of the court of magistrates and freeholders. For more information, see John Garrison Marks, "Race and Freedom in the African Americas: Free People of Color and Social Mobility in Cartagena and Charleston," PhD Dissertation (2016, Rice University). This dataset is a part of the Magazine of American Datasets (MEAD). To view more of the collection, visit https://repository.upenn.edu/exhibits/orgunit/mead.