title: Virginia Slave Births Index, 1853-1865, Vol. 1: A-C
author: Alexandria Library
description: In 1853, the Commonwealth of Virginia began an annual registration of births and deaths. The Birth Index of Slaves, 1853-1865 was later transcribed by the Works Project Administration (WPA) and recorded on microfilm. While the informationname of slave owner, infants name, mothers name, birth date, place of birthis of immense value to genealogists, working with the microfilm can be problematic. Hence, the creation of this multi-volume reference work, Virginia Slave Births Index, 1853-1865.  In 2003, staff and volunteers with Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria Library began to transcribe the WPA microfilm, enter data into spreadsheets, and sort the information by slave owners surname and given name. Entries include single births, multiple births, and stillbirths. Occasionally, both parents of an enslaved infant are identified. In rare instances, the name of a freeborn infant appears. Independent city and county names are spelled out. Data not reported in the microfilm is denoted by ----. Illegible text in the microfilm is denoted by ####. This index includes more than 130,000 entries.
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  CHAPTER I  
  —  
  A Slave Among Slaves I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County,
  Virginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth,
  but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time. As
  nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads post-office
  called Hale’s Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not know the month or
  the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and
  the slave quarters—the latter being the part of the plantation where the
  slaves had their cabins.
  
  
  My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and
  discouraging surroundings. This was so, however, not because my owners were
  especially cruel, for they were not, as compared with many others. I