• FamilySearch: African American Online Records

• FamilySearch: United States Freedman's Bank Registers 1865-1874

• FamilySearch: Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872

• FamilySearch: Freedmen’s Branch Records, 1872-1878 – browse images

• Ancestry: African American Collection (search all collections at once)

• Ancestry: Freedmen's Bureau Field Offices 1865-1872

• Ancestry: US Southern Claims Commission 1871-1880

• VA.edu: American Slave Narratives

• Digital Library on American Slavery

• Civil War Soldiers and Sailors

• World War I Draft Registration

• DocUSouth: North American Slave Narratives

• Library of Congress: WPA Slave Narratives

• Library of Congress: American Memory - Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860

• African American Cemeteries Online

• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database – 90,000+names

• The Atlantic Slave Database Network: Slave Biographies

• African American Gateway page by Allen County Public Library

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How to Find African American sources

Where to Find

Methods

One of the best overviews on how to get started is FamilySearch's Wiki page, "QuickGuide to African American Records." 

 

Use the Usual General Records to Trace your Family back to the 1870s

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Reconstruction Era Document Types

• Voter Registration Lists

• Freedmen Bureau Records

• Southern Claims Commission

 

Pre-Civil War Document Types

• 1850-1860 U.S. Census Slave Schedules

• Plantation Records

Links to Learn More

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• African American Genealogy Methodology & Record Types by American Ancestors

• African American Genealogy Methodology by the Virginia Historical Society

• African-American Migration Experience

• AfriGeneas: African Ancestored Genealogy

• Africana Heritage Project

• FamilySearch Wiki: African American Quick Guide

• FamilySearch Wiki: Finding African Americans 1870-Present

• FamilySearch Wiki: US Colored Troops in the Civil War

• Free African Americans of VA, NC, SC, MD, DE

• Institute of African American Research

• Library of Congress: African American Family Histories and Related Works in the Library of Congress

• Library of Congress: Journey Into Your Past: African American Genealogy Resources 

• National Archives: African American Heritage