About the
Antebellum Diaspora Project
Our Shared Story
There are more than 30 million African Americans living in the US today who are directly descended from ancestors who were enslaved during the antebellum era and emancipated in 1865.
As the Transatlantic Slave Trade came to an end on January 1, 1808, enslavers and slave traders could no longer legally bring people of African descent into the US with the intent to enslave them. However, with the invention and licensing of the cotton gin and the US government's desire for more territory, the demand for free slave labor never waned. In fact, it exploded and the US government incentivized enslavers with free land. Commodified black bodies were moved southerly and westerly in record numbers. By the end of the Civil War, nearly 2.5 million of the 4 million American-born enslaved people living in the US had experienced local or interstate forced migration, and they were permanently separated from their families.
Many of the newly emancipated people tried desperately to reunite their families. Some even placed "Information Wanted" ads in black-owned newspapers across the country looking for the whereabouts of their next of kin. During the years of Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau aided in the effort to help newly emancipated people reunite their families, but in 1872, the US Congress, which included many former enslavers, defunded the Freedmen’s Bureau -- only 7 years after its inception. It was not nearly the time needed to help families that had been forcibly separated for generations to restore their families, and our families have largely remained separated since the antebellum era.
What is the Antebellum Diaspora Project
The Antebellum Diaspora Project is an initiative that is focused on exploring and documenting the experiences of American-born enslaved people during the antebellum era in the US and the experiences of their descendants. The project delves into the narratives of enslaved and free Black people, highlighting their struggles, resilience, and the negated history of their contributions to American society before and after the Civil War. The initiative seeks to bring awareness to the massive, permanent family separations that resulted from chattel slavery.
The Antebellum Diaspora project emphasizes the importance of preserving these stories to better understand the full scope of American history using oral history, genealogy, research, storytelling, and community engagement to ensure these historical experiences are recognized and remembered.
