Expanded Collection of All Sales of Enslaved People in Orange County
Welcome to Orange County's new and improved Slave Records website. When we began the Orange County Slave Records Project, we combed through 18,000 pages of hand-written Orange County Deed Books and found some 1600 or so records of sales of enslaved persons. But recently I discovered a couple hundred more documents related to the sale of enslaved persons, which were not recorded in the Deed Books. Those additional transactions have now been abstracted and are included here along with the original 1600 records. Some of the records were found in Orange County Will Books (at the State Archives in Raleigh) and others were found in another collection at the State Archives called "Orange County Bills of Sale." Below you will find Orange County Deed Books cited in the form ODB 2/100 meaning Deed Book 2, page 100. Will Books are cited in the form OWB A/100 meaning Will Book A, page 100. And the citation Bills of Sale, image 100 means that the document is found in the Orange Cou