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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?

Hi, I am actually white of Italian, Spanish, Irish, English, Scottish and French Canadian ancestry. I have always been interested in the etomology of names, especially in the United States.

I do a lot of genealogy, and much of my clientele is black, so I had to study up on surnames and if you read the issue of the National Genealogical Society Magazine about 1989 there is an article on Bill Cosby's roots and his owners were Virginian slaveowners named Cosby (or Causby).

By the way, Algore's ancestors were slaveowners and that was interesting considering he tried to paint Bush as a racist.

Here is a website you might be interested in...the deeds have many names of slaves and slave owners in the early 1800s.

From what I've seen, slaves were not identified by surnames until after the Civil War. Some church minutes I was reading, for example, would have referred to a "colored member" as "Caesar, servant of S.C. Jones" before the Civil War, and "Caesar Jones" after the Civil War.

Another thing I found interesting (which has nothing to do with names) was that at least some slaves apparently were allowed to choose their own church. One of my ancestors was a Methodist minister, but at least one of his slaves joined a Baptist church.