Published on June 19, 2024 by Morgan Black  
EricaWoodford2

After more than a decade of work on her Enslaved People Project, Cumberland School of Law alumna Erica L. Woodford, JD ’00, announced the launch of an online database of slave records from Macon-Bibb County, Georgia. The online research portal went live in March 2024.

In 2013, Woodford, Bibb County’s superior court clerk, discovered records of slave transactions in old county deed books while conducting a routine office inventory. Soon after her discovery, Woodford partnered with Mercer University’s Department of Africana Studies and the university’s library to seek grant funding to hire and train students to help with the project. The result was a catalog of close to 1,000 deeds and other court records involving enslaved people in the area between the years of 1823 and 1865.

In a press release from Bibb County’s Office of the Superior Court, Woodford said, “The Enslaved People Project has been an ongoing labor of love for the past decade. I am so excited that we are now able to share these official court/property records with the community at large. As the first African American Superior Court Clerk in Bibb County, I am both honored and humbled to unearth these records of our rich shared history.”

Through this extensive digitization project, the public can now easily access this important data and images while also having the opportunity to view primary source documents regarding slavery.

Woodford added, “I find peace in knowing our treasure trove of records are now digitized, preserved, and stored electronically in case of disaster.”

Search the Enslaved People Project database

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.