"The librarian sat me in front of a microfilm reader and brought out roll after roll of film. I stayed there for hours, squinting to decipher the archaic handwriting in the Free Negro Book, which was published annually in South Carolina before the Civil War. The names in each year's edition were alphabetized, but only roughly-all of the surnames starting with A came before all of the surnames starting with B, but Agee might come before Anderson, or it might come after."
"On March 27, 1829, a wealthy white planter and businessman named Richard Fordham purchased four enslaved African Americans from a woman named Isabella Perman. One of them was my great-great-grandfather, a boy called Harry. This transaction took place in Charleston, the port of entry for an estimated 40 percent of all enslaved Africans brought to toil in this country. A document recording the sale was filed with the South Carolina secretary of state several days later, on April 7."
Research at a microfilm reader uncovered Henry (called Harry) Fordham in the 1851 Free Negro Book. The names in each edition were only roughly alphabetized. On March 27, 1829, Richard Fordham purchased four enslaved African Americans from Isabella Perman, including Harry. The sale took place in Charleston, a port of entry for enslaved Africans, and the transaction was filed with the South Carolina secretary of state on April 7. The sale listed 'a Negro boy named Harry and a Negro woman named Jenny and her two children named Hager and Margaret.' Fordham paid $1,080. Henry spent nineteen years as Fordham's chattel and mastered blacksmithing.
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