Unit Title:
British headquarters (Sir Guy Carleton) papers, 1747-1783
Accumulation:
1747-1783
Created:
1747-1783
Creator:
Great Britain. Army. American Colonial Headquarters.
Physical Description:
30.00 microfilm reels (35mm), .50 MB (1 partial CD-R), .50 MB (3 digital files)
Language:
English
Biography or History:
unspecified
Custodial History:
unspecified
Acquisition Information:
Great Britain. Army. American Colonial Headquarters.
Scope and Content:
This series consists of microfilm of positive photostats of the headquarters papers of successive British commanders-in-chief in the Revolutionary War. Item 100, the "Book of Negroes," an inspection roll made between April 23 and November 30, 1783, of all blacks leaving New York on British vessels, is of special interest for South Carolina history. When the British evacuated Charleston in December 1782 they transported many black men, women, and children to New York. Congress had instructed General George Washington to secure American property, including slaves, prior to the evacuation of New York, but Sir Guy Carleton promised to honor proclamations of freedom issued by previous commanders and proposed to compensate slaveowners for the loss of property. The inspection roll was prepared by three men assigned by Carleton and a three-man commission appointed by Congress. A large number of the nearly 3,000 blacks described on the roll had come from South Carolina, and the roll includes information on the names and locations of their former owners.
Appraisal Information:
unspecified
Accruals:
no
Arrangement:
Series arranged in volumes and numbered consecutively by assigned number.
Conditions Governing Access:
none
Conditions Governing Use:
none
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements:
none
Other Finding Aid:
none
Location of Originals:
The photostats reproduced on this microfilm are at Colonial Williamsburg. The original manuscripts are in the British Public Record Office (PRO/30/55/1-107). The American copy of item 100, the "Book of Negroes," is in the National Archives. It has been published, from a photocopy in the New York Public Library, as Graham Russell Hodges, editor, The Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile after the American Revolution (New York: Garland Pub. in association with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996).
Alternative Form Available:
The repository also has a searchable CD-ROM transcription of the "Book of Negroes" prepared by Dr. Ruth Holmes Whitehead of Nova Scotia. The transcription is at present made primarily from a partial nineteenth century copy at the Nova Scotia Archives which is missing the short part three; part three was supplied from the Graham Russell Hodges publication, but Dr. Whitehead is redoing the transcription to base it primarily on the British copy with notations as to variations in other copies.
Related Material:
none
Bibliography:
none
Other Descriptive Data:
Optical media in this series stored separately from microfilm. Housed on the same CD as P900062, Searchable CD-ROM transcription of runaway slave advertisements in Charleston newspapers, in Box 1 of Optical Media Storage, 273A01.
Processing Information:
None
