Hi Nancy,

Welcome to Afrigeneas. Getting over the brick wall of slavery is not impossible - but will require researching the slaveholding families. Your best bet is to read through the archived posts on the slave research forum - and get clues from other researchers on how to approach the "digging".

http://www.afrigeneas.com/forumd/

The county Abbeville Genweb site is also a place to start - as are websites of family members of the slaveholders. I see that you have already posted to the Abbeville rootsweb message board.

Here's a link to books that may be useful: