Well,

If you live in Mississippi, you may have to go to the state archives or to the county courthouse where they lived in Mississippi to locate them in the county records. As you know, we were not named in the census prior to 1870 unless they were Free Persons of Color. There have been rare occasions where slaves were listed with the slave holder in the census prior to 1870. So, the key is to determine who the white slave holder was for your family. That can be difficult if you don't already have leads. If you should determine who the slave holder was then you can locate the slave holder in county records such as Deeds, Estate Returns, Tax records, Inventory records, and other county records. Also, you maybe able to find your family in newspapers from that time period.

Tony