[FUMETTI]

Hi there!

Yes, for the most part slaveowners gave them their names, and surnames, so blacks tracing their ancestry usually find out that their surname was that of their last slaveowner before freedom (that was the case for Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey).

When blacks were free, they were frequently shedding their classical names and adopting names of heroes like Washington, Lincoln, and abolitionists like Lloyd and such.

Occasionally black slaveowner surnames were dropped. Case in point was Frederick Douglass. He was born Frederick Bailey but became Douglass upon his escape to Rochester NY.

[TontoKowalski]

Yes, for the most part slaveowners gave them their names, and surnames, so blacks tracing their ancestry usually find out that their surname was that of their last slaveowner before freedom (that was the case for Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey).

I think at some level I must have known about the surnames. I grew up in the South, and there were a lot of us sharing my surname...both black and white. Heritage and lineage mean so much to my family...I can't imagine what it would be like to trace your family tree and find that your last name is the name of the last man to own your family.

However, I didn't know that the Christian names were chosen by the slaveowner, and not the parents. That almost seems as sad as having to adopt the surname.

I am assuming you are a black gentleman who has done some geneology. Are there resources available that allow most black Americans to trace their lines back further than the 1850's/60's? I'm guessing that the slaveowners records would be the most frequent source of information, and that they would be sketchy, but I don't know that. Were census records kept of slaves, other than just their numbers?