Tee & Others,

If you are researching ancestors and surnames from the areas of Southampton Co., VA & Northampton Co., NC, which are neighboring counties, you might want to look at Ohio. The years 1820-1860 saw a heavy influx of AA's into Ohio from those areas during that period as FPOC.

Logan County alone, located in west central Ohio, due to it's Quaker, Presbyterian and Congregationalist influences became the home of many manumitted AA's from those areas in VA/NC. Surnames with Freedom Registration papers filed in the Logan County, Ohio Probate Court include, among others: Artis/Artest/Artiss, Archer, Banks, Byrd/Bird, Day, Dempsey, Freeman, Hartwell, Hicks, Heathcock/Haithcock, Jackson, Jenkins, Mendenhall, Newsome/Newsum, Roberts, Scott, Stewart.Taborn/Taburn, Walden/Waldon/Waldron and Weaver.

Many of these families also helped to form FPOC communities in other parts of Ohio as well as Indiana, Illinois and Michigan .... States carved out of the former Northwest Territory, where slavery/involuntary servitude was 'technically illegal'.

Happy Holidays & Happy Hunting Y'all ,

Art's Families & Other Folks
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