Many of you might already know this but some may not. The Virginia Gazette not has a searchable data base which lists advertisements for runaway slaves starting from the late 1600s through about the 1770s. Many of these slaves are listed as being African born and some even states what country in Africa they are from and tribal affiliation, or what ships the slaves were imported on. This is really a great site. I know that most of us are not back that far but recently I found some very good information looking up advertisements for runaway slaves in Nashville TN.
Surprisingly there were many slaves listed as being African as late as 1816. Initially I thought there would have been few native Africans this far west at that late a date. I also found a native African on the mortality schedule in Robertson County, TN for 1850 listed as being 72 years old at death. Many of the slaves were described as having African marks, or that they had only been in the country a short time and could not speak English, which would indicate that they were smuggled into the country after the 1808 ban on importing slaves. Others were listed as able to speak well to have been in the country a short time. So if you have an ancestor that you feel might be African but can't prove it otherwise it might be worth a look in newspapers for runaways. I have always thought it would be a great project to go through each state's newspapers and create a database of runaways from the beginning of slavery through emancipation.