African-Americans in Antebellum Boston

Carol Buchalter Stapp's book Afro-Americans in Antebellum Boston: An Analysis of Probate Records provided an interesting method in which students could identify African-Americans who were either members of or at least supported the various voluntary associations of the ante-bellum period. Probate records are court documents that help settle people's estates. Usually when we think of probate records we think of wills. If a person leaves a will she is called testate and if no will is written, in testate. Wills provide wonderful primary sources for determining what specific organizations or associations these individuals' bequeathed money or goods to. These bequeaths would indicate at least some organizational participation or support.

Ms. Stapp's in depth study was focused on the probate records of Boston's antebellum blacks who died in the 1840's. As our study focuses on the 1850's we used components of her research as a model for ours. We used the Suffolk County (Mass.) Probate Index. This index lists alphabetically the names of people who died in Suffolk County, their age, occupation and docket number to their will. The docket number is the method in which the probate record is filed and cataloged. We linked the names of almost 2,000 individuals in our database. We now have a number of names and respective docket numbers from individuals from the database that died in the decade of the 1850's. The wills are held at the Massachusetts State Archives in Boston. Our spring 2004 PATH members will be analyzing these wills on the first Saturday field trip.

Another interesting component of probate records that is beyond the focus of our study is the inventory list of the individual's possessions. These inventory lists help articulate the lives of these people through their material culture.

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