As part of a research effort for a story that will be published in a leading German news publication I am looking for information about slaves of German, Swiss, Austrian, Danish, and possibly Dutch slave traders or slave owners as well as their contemporary descendants.

In the process of this research, I have contacted a number of historians both in the US and in Europe who specialize in Dutch and German merchant families. However, even in their research there is little information about the slaves they brought to North-America. We would like to fill that gap and are prepared to undertake significant efforts in our research. But we need to find the identities of slaves to pursue this project further.

Examples of slave trader and holder families for the early colonial time in the Northeast might be families such as Leisler (related to Jacob Leisler from New York with one family branch in Maryland) ; Philipse (Frederick Philipse or Fredryck Flypsen, Adolph Philipse); possibly also Crowninshields; Rhinelander; Heckscher (Charles A. Heckscher).

These are mere examples and except in the cases of Philipse and Leisler I have not even evidence for slaver activities. In any event, I do not want to limit my search to these families only. My object is to find complete relationships of slaves, their descendants and slavers and their descendants.

Any help is much appreciated.

Rico Carisch