Documentation of Enslaved People

Slavery in Mecklenburg County

Slavery in North Carolina was mostly centered in the eastern part of the state, however, Mecklenburg county had one of the largest populations of enslaved people in the Piedmont. In addition to the large number of enslaved individuals that worked on farms and cotton plantations, many worked in the gold mines, where possibly up to a third of all mine workers were enslaved. There was also a significant number of enslaved individuals involved in various industries, including blacksmithing, brickmaking, textile mills and iron mines. In 1860, just before the start of the Civil War, there were 6,800 enslaved individuals living in the county out of a total population of 17,000, making 40% of the entire county enslaved. 

Manuscript collections are the unpublished personal papers of an individual or organization and are very valuable for research. Special Collections contains manuscript collections that range in date from the late 1700s to the present. If you would like to search all of our manuscript collections and oral histories for specific words or topics, please visit our online finding aids. To search for rare books, use the library catalog.