LibGuides: Local History, Special Collections, and Genealogy: African American History

African American History

Worcester County Library Resources

Several of the Archive Collections include information on African American history in Worcester County. Some of them are

WR 26: Worcester High School Yearbook collection
- The Worcester High School Yearbook collection contains one 1967 yearbook from the Worcester High School. This yearbook includes many black and white photographs of students who attended Worcester High School. Included in the yearbook are photographs of the 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970 classes. There are also detailed information and photographs of all the clubs offered at Worcester High School.
WR 69: Ernestine Bailey Papers
- The Ernestine Bailey Papers are an assortment of documents pertaining to Black history in Worcester County. This includes information on the founding of Ebenezer Methodist Church, in Snow Hill, Maryland in 1869. Also included are programs from events held at the church, including those of the Worcester County Branch of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1944. Also included are programs and newspaper articles about awards given to Black members of the community from 1992-1993. Also a membership card for the Maryland State Colored Teachers’ Association and Maryland School Bulletin from Lenora Drummond, who went on to become the secretary for the Worcester County NAACP.

The Snow Hill Branch also includes Vertical Files on many topics. Some pertinent topics include

African American History
Black History
Black History- Sandy Grounds- Snow Hill
Population- White, Free Blacks, & Slave
Snow Hill- Race Relations

These Vertical Files can be viewed in person at the Snow Hill branch.

Local Worcester County People and Places

Our librarians have compiled information on local people and places that are important to Black History in Worcester County. While these were compiled for Black History Month, it is important to learn more about local Black History year round.

Books

We have a wide variety of books related to African American history and genealogy on the Eastern Shore in our Maryland collection that are available to check out, and in the Worcester Room that can be used for research in the library.

Click each of the tabs to view books in our collection. This is not a complete list of all books we have on each topic.

To search all books in our collection please visit our catalog here.

Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors by Franklin Carter Smith; Emily Anne Croom
Call Number: 929.108 S
ISBN: 1558706054
Publication Date: 2002-12-24
This volume provides easy step-by-step instruction for researching slave and free black ancestors pre- and post-Civil War. It introduces a systematic approach that should help eliminate months or years of aimless wondering.
Family Pride: The Complete Guide to Tracing African-American Genealogy by Donna Carter
Call Number: 929.1089 B
ISBN: 0028608429
Publication Date: 1997-01-01
Family Pride serves the vast and expanding numbers of African-Americans interested in tracing their family histories. It provides readers with the tools to begin their quest and overcome barriers unique to the African-American genealogical search, such as the scarcity of written records. Combining the inspiration of personal accounts with a wealth of practical information, it outlines the vast resources available to plot one's lineage, from oral history and census reports to church and manumission records, from the Freedman's Bureau to the Negro Baseball Leagues, from the National Archives to the Internet. Complete with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct the search, gather findings, and publish a finished document, Family Pride is an indispensable guide for all who want to know more about where they came from.
Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree by Tony Burroughs
Call Number: 929.1089 B
ISBN: 0684847043
Publication Date: 2001-02-06
Trace, document, record, and write your family's history with this easy-to-read, step-by-step authoritative guide. Finally, here is the fun, easy-to-use guide that African Americans have been waiting for since Alex Haley published Roots more than twenty-five years ago. Written by the leading African American professional genealogist in the United States who teaches and lectures widely, Black Roots highlights some of the special problems, solutions, and sources unique to African Americans. Based on solid genealogical principles and designed for those who have little or no experience researching their family's past, but valuable to any genealogist, this book explains everything you need to get started, including: where to search close to home, where to write for records, how to make the best use of libraries and the Internet, and how to organize research, analyze historical documents, and write the family history. This guide also includes: -real case histories that illustrate the unique challenges posed to African Americans and how they were solved -more than 100 illustrations and photographs of actual documents and records you're likely to encounter when tracing your family tree -samples of all the worksheets and forms you'll need to keep your research in order -a list of the traps even experienced researchers often fall into that hamper their research And more.
Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity by Dee Parmer Woodtor
Call Number: 929.1089 W
ISBN: 037540595X
Publication Date: 1998
Index to the Journal of the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society Quarterly by Barbara D. Walker; James D. Walker (Preface by)
Call Number: WR REF 929 I
ISBN: 1556135351
Publication Date: 1992-02-01
Afro-American Genealogy Sourcebook by Tommie M. Young
Call Number: WR REF 929 Y
ISBN: 0824086848
Publication Date: 1987-03-01
Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy by James M. Rose; Alice Eichholz
Call Number: WR REF 929.1 R
ISBN: 0806317353
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
When this book was originally published in 1978, it was the first book to provide researchers with information on resources and a methodology specific to African-American genealogy. Now, owing to the unprecedented growth of interest in the subject, this landmark publication has been completely updated and is once again the premier guide to African-American genealogy. The 2nd edition of Black Genesis provides guidance not only to the same basic resources presented in the original edition but also to a substantial amount of additional material. The original goal, however, remains the same--to introduce the novice and professional researcher to African-American genealogical research methods and resources.
Colored Volunteers of Maryland, Civil War, 7th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, 1863-1866 by Agnes Kane Callum
Call Number: WR REF 929.11 C
Publication Date: 1990
Free Born: 350 Years of Eastern Shore African-American History: The Adams/Beckett Family by William Crawford; Samuel Adams
Call Number: WR REF 929.41 A stored in cabinet
ISBN: 0788416251
Publication Date: 2000-10-01
In researching his family history, the author discovered many African American families whose freedom had been established from the first or second generation after arrival-families that had lived and worked in America for over 200 years BEFORE the Civil War. A1625HB - $17.00
Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware : From the Colonial Period to 1810 by Paul Heinegg
Call Number: WR REF 929.51 H
Publication Date: 2000
Roster of African-American Civil War Veterans from Worcester County by David W. Briddell
Call Number: WR REF 929.142 B
Publication Date: 1999
One Kind Favor: See That My Grave's Kept Clean ; African American Burial Sites of Dorchester and Wicomico Counties, Maryland by Linda Duyer
Call Number: WR REF 929.1023 D
Publication Date: 1997

The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey from Bondage to Freedom by David F. Walker; Damon Smyth (Illustrator); Marissa Louise (Illustrator)
Call Number: B DOUGLASS
ISBN: 9780399581441
Publication Date: 2019-01-08
A graphic novel biography of the escaped slave, abolitionist, public speaker, and most photographed man of the nineteenth century, based on his autobiographical writings and speeches, spotlighting the key events and people that shaped the life of this great American. Recently returned to the cultural spotlight, Frederick Douglass's impact on American history is felt even in today's current events. Comic book writer and filmmaker David F. Walker joins with the art team of Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise to bring the long, exciting, and influential life of Douglass to life in comic book form. Taking you from Douglass's life as a young slave through his forbidden education to his escape and growing prominence as a speaker, abolitionist, and influential cultural figure during the Civil War and beyond, The Life of Frederick Douglass presents a complete illustrated portrait of the man who stood up and spoke out for freedom and equality. Along the way, special features provide additional background on the history of slavery in the United States, the development of photography (which would play a key role in the spread of Douglass's image and influence), and the Civil War. Told from Douglass's point of view and based on his own writings, The Life of Frederick Douglass provides an up-close-and-personal look at a history-making American who was larger than life.
Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet by D. H. Dilbeck
Call Number: B DOUGLASS
ISBN: 9781469636184
Publication Date: 2018-02-14
From his enslavement to freedom, Frederick Douglass was one of America's most extraordinary champions of liberty and equality. Throughout his long life, Douglass was also a man of profound religious conviction. In this concise and original biography, D. H. Dilbeck offers a provocative interpretation of Douglass's life through the lens of his faith. In an era when the role of religion in public life is as contentious as ever, Dilbeck provides essential new perspective on Douglass's place in American history. Douglass came to faith as a teenager among African American Methodists in Baltimore. For the rest of his life, he adhered to a distinctly prophetic Christianity. Imitating the ancient Hebrew prophets and Jesus Christ, Douglass boldly condemned evil and oppression, especially when committed by the powerful. Dilbeck shows how Douglass's prophetic Christianity provided purpose and unity to his wide-ranging work as an author, editor, orator, and reformer. As "America's Prophet," Douglass exposed his nation's moral failures and hypocrisies in the hopes of creating a more just society. He admonished his fellow Americans to truly abide by the political and religious ideals they professed to hold most dear. Two hundred years after his birth, Douglass's prophetic voice remains as timely as ever.
Bound for the Promised Land by Kate Clifford Larson
Call Number: B TUBMAN
ISBN: 0345456270
Publication Date: 2003-12-30
Harriet Tubman is one of the giants of American history—a fearless visionary who led scores of her fellow slaves to freedom and battled courageously behind enemy lines during the Civil War. And yet in the nine decades since her death, next to nothing has been written about this extraordinary woman aside from juvenile biographies. The truth about Harriet Tubman has become lost inside a legend woven of racial and gender stereotypes. Now at last, in this long-overdue biography, historian Kate Clifford Larson gives Harriet Tubman the powerful, intimate, meticulously detailed life she deserves. Drawing from a trove of new documents and sources as well extensive genealogical research, Larson reveals Tubman as a complex woman— brilliant, shrewd, deeply religious, and passionate in her pursuit of freedom. The descendant of the vibrant, matrilineal Asanti people of the West African Gold Coast, Tubman was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland but refused to spend her life in bondage. While still a young woman she embarked on a perilous journey of self-liberation—and then, having won her own freedom, she returned again and again to liberate family and friends, tapping into the Underground Railroad. Yet despite her success, her celebrity, her close ties with Northern politicians and abolitionists, Tubman suffered crushing physical pain and emotional setbacks. Stripping away myths and misconceptions, Larson presents stunning new details about Tubman’s accomplishments, personal life, and influence, including her relationship with Frederick Douglass, her involvement with John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and revelations about a young woman who may have been Tubman’s daughter. Here too are Tubman’s twilight years after the war, when she worked for women’s rights and in support of her fellow blacks, and when racist politicians and suffragists marginalized her contribution. Harriet Tubman, her life and her work, remain an inspiration to all who value freedom. Now, thanks to Larson’s breathtaking biography, we can finally appreciate Tubman as a complete human being—an American hero, yes, but also a woman who loved, suffered, and sacrificed.Bound for the Promised Landis a magnificent work of biography, history, and truth telling.
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton
Call Number: B TUBMAN
ISBN: 0316144924
Publication Date: 2004-02-02
Every schoolchild knows of Harriet Tubman's heroic escape and resistance to slavery.But few readers are aware that Tubman went on to be a scout, a spy, and a nurse for the Union Army, because there has never before been a serious biography for an adult audience of this important woman.This is that long overdue historical work, written by an acclaimed historian of the antebellum era and the Civil War. Illiterate but deeply religious, Tubman left her family in her early 20s to escape to Philadelphia, then a hotbed of abolitionism.There she became the first and only woman, fugitive slave, and black to work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. So successful was she in spiriting away slaves that the state of Maryland put a $40,000 bounty on her head.Within a year of starting her work, fellow slaves and Northerners began referring to Tubman as 'Moses' because of how many people she had freed. With impeccable scholarship that draws on newly available sources and research into the daily lives of slaves, HARRIET TUBMAN is an enduring work on one of the most important figures in American history.
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Call Number: B TUBMAN
ISBN: 9781982139599
Publication Date: 2019-11-05
In the bestselling tradition of The Notorious RBG comes a lively, informative, and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history--Harriet Tubman--a heroine whose fearlessness and activism still resonates today. Harriet Tubman is best known as one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. As a leading abolitionist, her bravery and selflessness has inspired generations in the continuing struggle for civil rights. Now, National Book Award nominee Erica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War, worked as a spy for the Union Army, was a fierce suffragist, and was an advocate for the aged. She Came to Slay reveals the many complexities and varied accomplishments of one of our nation's true heroes and offers an accessible and modern interpretation of Tubman's life that is both informative and engaging. Filled with rare outtakes of commentary, an expansive timeline of Tubman's life, photos (both new and those in public domain), commissioned illustrations, and sections including "Harriet By the Numbers" (number of times she went back down south, approximately how many people she rescued, the bounty on her head) and "Harriet's Homies" (those who supported her over the years), She Came to Slay is a stunning and powerful mix of pop culture and scholarship and proves that Harriet Tubman is well deserving of her permanent place in our nation's history.
Young Frederick Douglass by Dickson J. Preston
Call Number: MD B DOUGLASS
ISBN: 0801827396
Publication Date: 1985-03-01
Drawing on previously untapped sources, Young Frederick Douglass recreates with fidelity and in convincing detail the background and early life of the man who was to become "the gadfly of America's conscience" and the undisputed spokesman for nineteenth-century black Americans. This highly regarded biography traces the life and times of Frederick Douglass from his birth on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1818 until 1838, when he escaped from slavery to emerge upon the national scene. At the time of Douglass's death in 1895, one eulogist wrote that he was probably the best-known American throughout the world since Abraham Lincoln.
Finding Charity's Folk by Jessica Millward
Call Number: MD B FOLKS
ISBN: 9780820331089
Publication Date: 2015-12-15
Finding Charity's Folk highlights the experiences of enslaved Maryland women who negotiated for their own freedom, many of whom have been largely lost to historical records. Based on more than fifteen hundred manumission records and numerous manuscript documents from a diversity of archives, Jessica Millward skillfully brings together African American social and gender history to provide a new means of using biography as a historical genre. Millward opens with a striking discussion about how researching the life of a single enslaved woman, Charity Folks, transforms our understanding of slavery and freedom in Revolutionary America. For African American women such as Folks, freedom, like enslavement, was tied to a bondwoman's reproductive capacities. Their offspring were used to perpetuate the slave economy. Finding loopholes in the law meant that enslaved women could give birth to and raise free children. For Millward, Folks demonstrates the fluidity of the boundaries between slavery and freedom, which was due largely to the gendered space occupied by enslaved women. The gendering of freedom influenced notions of liberty, equality, and race in what became the new nation and had profound implications for African American women's future interactions with the state.
Step by Step to the Top: The Saga of a President of a Historically Black University by William Percy Hytche.
Call Number: MD B HYTCHE
ISBN: 1885066538
Publication Date: 1999
James Lee Purnell Jr by James Purnell (As told by); Kimberly Chase (Editor, As told to, Photographer, Preface by, Transcribed by)
Call Number: MD B PURNELL
ISBN: 9780977282272
Publication Date: 2017-09-07
This is the autobiography of the first African-American elected to public office in Worcester County, Maryland. James Lee Purnell Jr. grew up on the outskirts of the small town of Berlin in Worcester County, Maryland in a time when Jim Crow reigned. The love of family and neighbors sustained him during those difficult times, and he followed in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his parents.Worcester County was slow to evolve, even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Seeking to spur change in his neglected and put-upon community, he joined with neighborhood organizations, as well as the local and state NAACP for the biggest fights of his life - and won.Looking forward, he shares his concerns about milestones not yet reached and the possibility of society slipping back into the days of old.

Got My Mind Set on Freedom: Maryland's Story of Black & White Activism, 1663-2000 by Barbara Mills
Call Number: MD 305.896 M
ISBN: 9780788422683
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Maryland has always been a state in the middle-part southern, part northern-both in the way it has dealt with race issues, and in the way it is perceived. It is the authors hope that this detailed account of the black-white experience in Maryland will enable the reader to feel and appreciate the many battles fought to get where we are today-and to realize how far we still have to go to achieve freedom and equality for all. The enormous effort that went into organizing every lawsuit and every demonstration, and the deep emotions felt by the participants are reflected in these pages. The number of early lawsuits initiated by blacks themselves and recounted by the author is a surprising feature. Discussions include: early history; employment, public accommodations, education, housing, and continuing racial issues. A personal touch is added with the authors account of her own participation in the civil rights movement in Baltimore in the 60s, with her ability to identify and interview persons she knew in CORE, and with her access to their saved clippings, papers, reports and correspondence. Numerous illustrations enhance the text. This book was a finalist in the Organization of American Historians Liberty Legacy Foundation Award in 2003.
The Isaiah Fountain Case: Outrage and Jim Crow Justice on Maryland's Eastern Shore by Joseph Koper
Call Number: MD 323.1 K
ISBN: 9781735995793
Publication Date: 2022-09-15
The Isaiah Fountain Case: Outrage and Jim Crow Justice on Maryland's Eastern Shore is a riveting account of racial injustice in Talbot County, painstakingly pieced together from the headlines and court records of a century ago. In the wake of World War One and the "Spanish flu" pandemic, economic and racial tensions flared across the country. The Eastern Shore of Maryland was not immune. In April 1919, a successful Black farmer named Isaiah Fountain set out by foot from his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, to Easton, Maryland, the county seat of Talbot County, in search of his missing wife. He had dispatched her on their wagon to withdraw money from their bank in Easton, but she failed to return. Finding she had made the withdrawal as planned, but had then left their horse and wagon behind in Easton, he suspected she had headed north to her parents' home in Camden, New Jersey. The next day, he bought a train ticket and followed her. Happily, when he reached Camden, she agreed to return home in a week. Unhappily, the timing of this domestic spat - precipitating his trip out of town - was about to kindle the most dire and vengeful suspicions in Talbot County, becoming a living nightmare for Isaiah. A teenage White girl who also lived near Trappe reported having been raped by a Black man on the same afternoon that Fountain was in Easton searching for his wife. These coincidences set off a catastrophic chain of events for a man who was almost certainly innocent: a hurried investigation, arrest, trial, 9-minute deliberation by an all-White jury, conviction, appeals, retrial, second conviction, and hanging. Along the way Fountain narrowly avoided being lynched by angry mobs and unbelievably, escaped twice from custody, evading massive manhunts before being recaptured. Unfortunately, not even three unimpeachable White witnesses who testified that Fountain was in Easton at the time the rape occurred could save him. In July 1920, Isaiah Fountain earned the bitter distinction of becoming the last person to be legally executed on the Eastern Shore - on a custom-built gallows inside the Talbot County jail. In telling this harrowing story for the first time at book length, Koper also chronicles a secondary story line - a "media war" between Easton and Baltimore newspapers, which saw the case very differently from each other and blazed away with one accusatory salvo after another.
Here Lies Jim Crow by C. Fraser Smith
Call Number: MD 323.196 S
ISBN: 9780801888076
Publication Date: 2008-06-30
Though he lived throughout much of the South--and even worked his way into parts of the North for a time--Jim Crow was conceived and buried in Maryland. From Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's infamous decision in the Dred Scott case to Thurgood Marshall's eloquent and effective work on Brown v. Board of Education, the battle for black equality is very much the story of Free State women and men. Here, Baltimore Sun columnist C. Fraser Smith recounts that tale through the stories, words, and deeds of famous, infamous, and little-known Marylanders. He traces the roots of Jim Crow laws from Dred Scott to Plessy v. Ferguson and describes the parallel and opposite early efforts of those who struggled to establish freedom and basic rights for African Americans. Following the historical trail of evidence, Smith relates latter-day examples of Maryland residents who trod those same steps, from the thrice-failed attempt to deny black people the vote in the early twentieth century to nascent demonstrations for open access to lunch counters, movie theaters, stores, golf courses, and other public and private institutions--struggles that occurred decades before the now-celebrated historical figures strode onto the national civil rights scene. Smith's lively account includes the grand themes and the state's major players in the movement--Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, and Lillie May Jackson, among others--and also tells the story of the struggle via several of Maryland's important but relatively unknown men and women--such as Gloria Richardson, John Prentiss Poe, William L. "Little Willie" Adams, and Walter Sondheim--who prepared Jim Crow's grave and waited for the nation to deliver the body.
Hirelings by Jennifer Hull Dorsey
Call Number: MD 331.216 D
ISBN: 9780801447785
Publication Date: 2011-04-15
In Hirelings, Jennifer Dorsey recreates the social and economic milieu of Maryland's Eastern Shore at a time when black slavery and black freedom existed side by side. She follows a generation of manumitted African Americans and their freeborn children and grandchildren through the process of inventing new identities, associations, and communities in the early nineteenth century. Free Africans and their descendants had lived in Maryland since the seventeenth century, but before the American Revolution they were always few in number and lacking in economic resources or political leverage. By contrast, manumitted and freeborn African Americans in the early republic refashioned the Eastern Shore's economy and society, earning their livings as wage laborers while establishing thriving African American communities. As free workers in a slave society, these African Americans contested the legitimacy of the slave system even while they remained dependent laborers. They limited white planters' authority over their time and labor by reuniting their families in autonomous households, settling into free black neighborhoods, negotiating labor contracts that suited the needs of their households, and worshipping in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Some moved to the cities, but many others migrated between employers as a strategy for meeting their needs and thwarting employers' control. They demonstrated that independent and free African American communities could thrive on their own terms. In all of these actions the free black workers of the Eastern Shore played a pivotal role in ongoing debates about the merits of a free labor system.
The Baltimore Elite Giants by Bob Luke
Call Number: MD 796.357 L
ISBN: 9780801891168
Publication Date: 2009-05-01
The true story of the Baltimore Elite Giants. Robert Peterson Award, Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference One of the best-known teams in the old Negro Leagues, the Elite Giants of Baltimore featured some of the outstanding African American players of the day. Sociologist and baseball writer Bob Luke narrates the untold story of the team and its interaction with the city and its people during the long years of segregation. To convey a sense of the action on the field and the major events in the team's history, Luke highlights important games, relives the standout performances of individual players, and discusses key decisions made by management. He introduces the team's eventual major league stars: Roy Campanella, who went on to a ten-year Hall of Fame career with the Brooklyn Dodgers; Joe Black, the first African American pitcher to win a World Series game; and James "Junior" Gilliam, a player and coach with the Dodgers for twenty-five years. Luke also describes the often contentious relationship between the team and major league baseball before, during, and after the integration of the major leagues. The Elite Giants did more than provide entertainment for Baltimore's black residents; the team and its star players broke the color barrier in the major leagues, giving hope to an African American community still oppressed by Jim Crow. In recounting the history of the Elite Giants, Luke reveals how the team, its personalities, and its fans raised public awareness of the larger issues faced by blacks in segregation-era Baltimore. Based on interviews with former players and Baltimore residents, articles from the black press of the time, and archival documents, and illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, The Baltimore Elite Giantsrecounts a barrier-breaking team's successes, failures, and eventual demise.
The Black Experience in Maryland by Vera F. Rollo
Call Number: MD 975.2 R
ISBN: 0917882091
Publication Date: 1984-01-01

Black Gospel: An Illustrated History of the Gospel Sound by Viv Boughton
Call Number: 783.7 B
ISBN: 0713715308
Publication Date: 1985-01-01
When the Game Was Black and White: The Illustrated History of the Negro Leagues by Bruce Chadwick
Call Number: 796.357 C
ISBN: 1558593721
Publication Date: 1992-10-01
Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present by Nell Irvin Painter
Call Number: 973.049 P
ISBN: 0195137558
Publication Date: 2005-11-01
Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Freedom by Ira Berlin (Editor); Marc Favreau (Editor); Steven F. Miller (Editor)
Call Number: 973.0496 R
ISBN: 1565844254
Publication Date: 1998-10-01
Early in the 1930s interviewers from the Federal Writers' Project combed the American South in search of former slaves. The interviewers spoke with hundreds of elderly people about their experiences in slavery, and preserved the voices of some of them on primitive recording devices. The nearly-inaudible recordings were placed in the Library of Congress, unheard by the general public, but now, remastered with the aid of modern technology, they offer the only known opportunity to hear the voices of former slaves.
Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American Frontier by John W. Ravage
Call Number: 978.0049 R
ISBN: 0874805465
Publication Date: 1997-12-01
With its rare photographs of definitive, enduring importance and its accompanying text, Black Pioneers depicts the full range of African-American experience in the West and reconstructs our understanding of the history and contributions of African-Americans on the frontier.

African American Lives
Call Number: WOSDVD-AFR 1902
ISBN: 1415716943
Publication Date: 2006
A compelling combination of storytelling and science, this series uses genealogy, oral histories, family stories and DNA to trace roots of several accomplished African Americans down through American history and back to Africa.
Binge Box: Conversations About Black Experiences by Binge Box
Call Number: WOSDVD-BIN 6157
Publication Date: 2020
Say her name: An investigation into the disputed cause of death of black activist Sandra Bland, who died in police custody in Waller County, Texas, after a routine traffic stop by state trooper Brian Encinia.
The Central Park Five: Chronicles America's complicated perceptions of race and crime through the story of the "Central Park 5"--A group of minority teenagers wrongfully convicted and jailed for brutally raping a white woman in New York.
And she could be next: The documentary follows a defiant movement of women of color as they transform politics from the ground up. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the series follows organizers and candidates (including Rashida Tlaib and Stacey Abrams) as they fight for a truly reflective government, asking whether democracy can be preserved, and made stronger, by those most marginalized.
I am not your Negro: Using James Baldwin's unfinished final manuscript, Remember This House, this documentary follows the lives and successive assassinations of three of the author's friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., delving into the legacy of these iconic figures and narrating historic events using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material. An up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, this film is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
The talk: Race in America: A two-hour film about "the talk" that parents have with their children of color (primarily boys) to teach them how to act around the police in order to remain safe.
Baltimore rising: In the wake of the 2015 death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, Baltimore was a city on the edge. Peaceful protests and destructive riots erupted in the immediate aftermath of Gray's death, reflecting the deep divisions between authorities and the community - and underscoring the urgent need for reconciliation.

A Guide to Harriet Tubman's Eastern Shore by Phillip Hesser; Charlie Ewers; Kate Clifford Larson (Foreword by)
Call Number: MD 975.21 H
ISBN: 9781467149297
Publication Date: 2021-09-20
When Harriet Tubman crossed the line to freedom in Pennsylvania, she left behind her home in Maryland, along with a life of enslavement. Her native land made Tubman the person she became to history: Underground Railroad conductor, Civil War scout and nurse, suffragist and advocate for the aged and disabled. Authors Phillip Hesser and Charlie Ewers explore the landscape of Tubman's life, from the slave quarters to the churches to the marshes and fields where she worked. Travel to nineteenth-century Dorchester County and search for the places that Harriet Tubman would never know again--some of them now lost to sinking lands and rising waters.
Black Chronicle by Maloyd Ben Wilson; Wilson Group Network Inc Staff
ISBN: 9780975321003
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
Presents an account of major events effecting the lives of African-Americans in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This book offers a compilation of 178 years of black history from the Revolutionary War / Chattel Slavery to the Civil Rights movement in America. It contains articles from African-American newspapers such as Colored Americans.

Resources at Other Maryland and Delmarva Organizations

In addition to the archive collections and books available at the Worcester County Libraries, we recommend checking out some of these online resources available at libraries, museums, and historical groups across Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.

African American Heritage Society of Snow Hill and Surrounding Areas

This local organization promotes the history and culture of African Americans in Worcester County. They have a Facebook page where they post about upcoming events, history, and more. They also have a YouTube page where they have begun posting oral histories from members of the community, and videos from their events.

The African Art Museum of Maryland

One of only three museums dedicated to African Art in the United States, it is located in Columbia, MD.

Black Heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore Project

One of the current initiatives of Beaches, Bays & Water Ways, a group whose mission is to preserve the history and heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore.is the African American Heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore Project. This project includes a Heritage Walking Tour, videos, and interpretive signage.

Chesapeake Heartland

A collection of photographs, documents, and items related to African American history and culture in Kent County, Maryland and the surrounding areas. It was created as a collaboration between the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, and other local organizations.

Digital Archive

Delaware Public Archives

The Delaware Public Archives has several guides and resources that may be useful to research on the Eastern Shore of Maryland as well. One of these is a book, A History of African Americans of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore edited by Carole C. Marks, which contains articles written by historians and professors on various topics related to African American history in Delmarva. They also have two research guides, Tracing Your African American Roots in Delaware and their African American Subject Guide.

Delmarva African American History Blog

This blog by author Linda Duyer on various topics related to African American history in Delmarva. While not currently active, past blog posts highlight topics related to African American History in this area including newspaper clippings, photographs, and other items she came across doing research.

Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University

The Nabb Research Center has several collections related to African American History in Delmarva.

Finding Guides for Archives and Special Collections
Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva's Black History
Lynching on Maryland's Eastern Shore
Microfilm Guide for African-American Studies

Enoch Pratt Free Library: African American Department

The Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore has a special department for African American history, culture, genealogy, and study. They have a reading room on site that you can visit to use their physical resources, or you can visit their website to see their online collections. This includes books, calendars, pamphlets, journals, newspapers, photographs, vertical files, and more. They also have some databases that are available with a digital Pratt Library card, which you can sign up for online.

Some of their collections are also available online through Digital Maryland. These are the following:

Views of African American Life in Maryland - Enoch Pratt Free Library
- A collection of black and white photographs of African American Marylanders from the 1890s to the 1970s. It includes all areas of Maryland, though a large portion showcase Baltimore during the 30s-40s.
Slave Documents Collection - Enoch Pratt Free Library
- A collection of documents related to slavery in Maryland including runaway ads, bills of sale, and lists of slaves.
African American Funeral Programs - Enoch Pratt Free Library
- A collection of more than 1800 funeral programs of African American Marylanders. These can be a good sources of biographical/genealogical information.

They also have some research guides to help with research using their collections and other resources.

Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware

This site contains digitized copies of two books of family histories and lists of names of free African Americans living in Delmarva, as well as other states and regions in the surrounding areas. These names came from a variety of sources including "tax lists, wills, deeds, free Negro registers, marriage bonds, parish registers, Revolutionary War pension files, etc."

Genealogy and History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia

The 'GHOTES' webpage compiles research on genealogy and history from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Delmarva. They have a page on the information on African American Families of Virginia's Eastern Shore.

Maryland Center for History and Culture

The Maryland Center for History and Culture (formerly known as the Maryland Historical Society) has many valuable resources on African American History. Their Guide to African American Sources highlights several of the resources they have in their collection. They also have a Guide to the Civil Rights Movement, for more specific information on that time period.

They have also had several virtual programs and seminars related to African American History in Maryland. Some of these included

and more! A complete list of their virtual programs can be found here.

They also have some other pages and articles on African Americans in Maryland including

Tracing the Travels of Maryland’s African Americans

Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture

A group that "is committed to discovering, documenting, preserving, collecting, and promoting Maryland’s African American heritage." They also provide assistance to institutions with similar goals. Some of their current projects include preserving African American Cemeteries and publishing a seasonal newsletter.

Maryland Genealogical Society

The MGS has a page featuring several resources that could be useful to genealogists researching African American families. This page is located here: African American Resources

Maryland Historic Trust

The MHT works to preserve important and historical buildings, sites, and communities in the state of Maryland. They have a few projects related to African American history.

African American Heritage Preservation Program

Maryland Office of Tourism

The state tourism office has several pages that feature museums and other research organizations all across the state.

Maryland State Archives

The Maryland State Archives has a guide to African American Resources. They have many records including censuses, newspapers, church records, indexes, and more.

Researching African American Families at the Maryland State Archives

Legacy of Slavery in Maryland

A page created by the MSA to show the history of slavery in Maryland. It includes biographies of enslaved Marylanders, slave owners, and abolitionists, a database of documents including newspaper ads, census records, bills of sale, and more, interactive maps, and links to other research resources.
A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland

Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This commission was created in 2019 to "research cases of racially motivated lynchings and hold public meetings and regional hearings where a lynching of an African American by a white mob has been documented."
More information about lynchings in Maryland can be found on the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project site.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture

A museum focused on the history and culture of African Americans in Maryland. It is located in Baltimore, MD.

Some of their collections are available to view online here. They also have a blog highlighting some of their items and collections here.

General Resources

African American Odyssey

Items from the Library of Congress's collections that have been compiled into Digital Collections. Some of these collections include The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress, Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, and Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860. More of their African American history collections can be found and searched here.

Family Search

This genealogy site has guides on finding records on many topics including African American Online Genealogy Records.

National Archives

The National Archives has many useful resources related to African American history across the United States. Some of these can be found on their African American Heritage Research Guide or their page Know Your Records: African American Records.

SlaveVoyages

This page compiles records of slave trades including Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trades.

Local History, Special Collections, and Genealogy

African American History

Worcester County Library Resources

Local Worcester County People and Places

Books

Resources at Other Maryland and Delmarva Organizations

African American Heritage Society of Snow Hill and Surrounding Areas

The African Art Museum of Maryland

Black Heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore Project

Chesapeake Heartland

Delaware Public Archives

Delmarva African American History Blog

Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University

Enoch Pratt Free Library: African American Department

Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware

Genealogy and History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia

Maryland Center for History and Culture

Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture

Maryland Genealogical Society

Maryland Historic Trust

Maryland Office of Tourism

Maryland State Archives

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture

General Resources

African American Odyssey

AfriGeneas

Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

Black Past

Family Search

National Archives

SlaveVoyages

Send Us a Message

Send us a Message

Local History, Special Collections, and Genealogy

African American History

Worcester County Library Resources

Local Worcester County People and Places

Books

Resources at Other Maryland and Delmarva Organizations

Black Heritage ​of the Lower Eastern Shore Project

Maryland Historic Trust

Maryland Office of Tourism

General Resources

Family Search

National Archives

Send Us a Message

Send us a Message

Black Heritage of the Lower Eastern Shore Project