Baltimore City Freedom Records

This e-book of a reel of Baltimore City Archives security microfilm contains six volumes inventoried in 1937 by the Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration (HRS).  The titles reflect the labels placed on the volumes by the HRS:

Negroes Manumitted, 1806-1816, images 1-11

Negroes Manumitted, & Born Free, 1820-1840, images 340-454

Negores Manumitted, 1830-1832,  images 12-154

Negroes Manumitted, 1841-1847, images 155-265

Negroes Manumitted, 1852-1858, images 266-339

Negroes Born Free, 1857-1864, images 455-506

Also available to download for educational and research purposes (not publication)  is a pdf of the whole reel, bca_sm230.pdf.

Secondary Sources to consult when using these records:

Freedom's Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860  by Christopher Phillips (1997)


The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland by T. Stephen Whitman (1997)

Baltimore City Freedom Records