Finding Enslaved and Slaveholding Ancestors in the Digital Library on American Slavery

The Ancestor Hunt regularly adds and updates new collection links, as well as searches for and fixes broken links.
(This page's most recent update is December 2025)

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The Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) provides free access to legal and legislative records related to slavery, primarily from Southern states. Unlike narrative history sites, DLAS focuses on documents that name people—both enslaved individuals and enslavers.

For genealogists, this site is valuable for:

  • identifying enslaved individuals by name
  • connecting enslaved people to enslavers
  • locating court cases involving slavery
  • documenting slave sales, disputes, and compensation

Download the Quicksheet PDF

To obtain a two-page Quicksheet PDF of the information, download it by clicking on the Download button below: 

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions

Quicksheets are also known as Quick Reference Guides. They are generally a one or two page PDF that is downloadable. A few QuickSheets are as large as a five page PDF.
Every QuickSheet is in a specific post on The Ancestor Hunt website. Just bring up the post, and at the bottom of the page is a big brown Download button that allows you to view and/or download the PDF when clicked.
Yes! You can view or download as many as you wish.

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