African American records are defined by their creation in the context of American history. The students will fill in the timeline with the appropriate events in African American history. They will then deduce which events created records that can be used in family history research. Slaves were treated as property, therefore, Bills of Sale, probate records from plantations and inventories can be used to trace African American ancestors. B. African Americans have served in all the U.S. wars including the Revolutionary and Civil War.
Military records are a great source of information for the family historian.
C. Plessy vs. Furgeson created a legal framework for segregation. As African Americans were segregated in every aspect of their lives, so were their records. African Americans often need to search segregated records to find information about their ancestors. For example, as Tony Burroughs noted in the series, African Americans are often found in the back, or colored section of City Directories, a precursor of the telephone book. The 15th Amendment was passed.