Name
|
Image
|
Birth
|
Death
|
Notes and References
|
Elizabeth Cash Green
|
|
June 2, 1862
|
February 20, 1975
|
Born in
Midland, Georgia in 1862, moved to Arkansas in 1882, and died
Helena, Arkansas in 1975.
[1]
|
Peter Mills
|
|
October 26, 1861
|
September 22, 1972
|
Born in
Prince George's County,
Maryland, and died after a pedestrian accident in
Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
[2]
|
Sylvester Magee
|
|
May 29, 1841?
|
October 15, 1971
|
Unverified and purportedly died at 130 years old in
Columbia,
Marion County,
Mississippi.
[3]
[4] Age is unverified, and such a claim would have made him the oldest person in the world, so his birthdate is likely after 1841.
|
William Casby
|
|
January 19, 1857
[5]
|
August 17, 1970
[6]
|
Photographed on March 24, 1963, by
Richard Avedon in
Algiers,
New Orleans,
Orleans Parish,
Louisiana, with multiple generations of his family.
[7]
[8]
[9]
|
Mary Hardway Walker
|
|
May 6, 1848?
|
December 1, 1969
|
Purportedly lived to 121 years old; she had a child who died in his 90s, according to the family Bible on
Ancestry.com.[
citation needed] She moved from
Union Springs,
Bullock County,
Alabama, to
Chattanooga,
Hamilton County,
Tennessee, where a newspaper article was published about her learning to read in 1966 at age 116.
[10]
|
Anna J. Cooper
|
|
August 10, 1858
|
February 27, 1964
|
Anna Cooper was a notable academic and activist who was born in slavery
Raleigh,
Wake County,
North Carolina.
[11]
[12]
|
Josephus
|
|
pre-1865
|
after August 28, 1963
|
Listed in a bulletin for
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963
March on Washington as supposedly the last surviving American slave.
[13]
|
Jeff Doby
|
|
February 6, 1858
|
March 26, 1963
|
Believed to be the oldest living person in
South Carolina at the time of 1961 and one of the last living former slaves in
South Carolina. Jeff was born in
Camden,
Kershaw County, and died at the age of 105 in 1963. He was featured in the local newspaper after his 103rd birthday and photographed. Two of his sons would also live to be nearly 100 years old.
[14]
|
Fountain Hughes
|
|
1859
|
July 4, 1957[
citation needed]
|
Former slave freed in 1865 after the American Civil War. Descendant of
Betty Hemings, slave matriarch at
Thomas Jefferson's plantation
Monticello. Hughes was interviewed in June 1949 about his life by the
Library of Congress as part of the Federal Writers' Project of oral histories of former slaves persons. The recorded interview is available online through the Library of Congress and the
World Digital Library.
|
Alfred "Teen" Blackburn
|
|
April 26, 1842
|
March 8, 1951
|
Received a Confederate pension in 1929 for accompanying his owner during the Civil War; resided in
North Carolina.
[15]
|
John Wesley Washington
|
|
c. 1843
|
May 15, 1951
[16]
|
Possibly last surviving former slave living in Washington, D.C.
|
Eliza Moore
|
|
1843
|
January 21, 1948
|
One of the last verified surviving American slaves; resided in
North Carolina.
[17]
|
William Andrew Johnson
|
|
February 8, 1858
|
May 16, 1943
|
Believed to be the last surviving person
enslaved by a U.S. President (
Andrew Johnson); visited
FDR at the
White House in 1937.
[18]
[19]
|
Adeline Dade
|
|
1853
|
December 1941
|
Possibly one of the last living former slaves in
New York.
[20]
|
Harriet Wilson Whitely
|
|
March 15, 1855
|
April 26, 1941
|
The last living former slave in
Fairmont,
Fairmont County,
West Virginia.
[21]
|
Matilda McCrear
|
|
1857
|
January 1940
|
The last known survivor of the
Clotilda in 1859–1860, the last trans-Atlantic slave ship to arrive in America from Africa.
[22]
|
Redoshi
|
|
1848
|
1937
|
The next to last known survivor of the
Clotilda, the last slave ship to arrive in America.
[23]
|
Delia Garlic
|
|
1837
|
1937 at the earliest
|
Born in
Virginia; was purportedly 100 years old during an interview with Margaret Fowler in the late 1930s.
[24]
[25] Date of death is unclear.
|
Cudjoe Lewis
|
|
1841
|
July 17, 1935
|
One of the last survivors of the
Clotilda, the last slave ship to arrive in America.
[26]
|
Perry Lockwood
|
|
ca. 1844
|
1929
|
Allegedly one of the last living former slaves in lower
Delaware; died aged 87.
[27]
|
Reuben Freeman
|
|
c. 1835
|
c. 1915
|
One of the last slaves in
Somerset County,
New Jersey; lived in
Somerville; was enslaved to William Annin of Liberty Corner.
[28] Likely other later survivors because final slaves were not emancipated until 1865 in
New Jersey.
|
Julius Lemons
|
|
c. 1850
|
after 1915
|
Possibly last survivor of the
Wanderer
[29]
|
David Hendrickson
|
|
1799
|
1900
|
Allegedly the last living former slave sold "on the block" in
New Jersey.
[30] Likely other later survivors because final slaves were not emancipated until 1865 in
New Jersey.
|
Louise Tritton
|
|
ca. 1780
|
1891
|
One of the last living former slaves in
Connecticut, and oldest person in
New Haven,
New Haven County.
[31]
|
Adjua D'Wolf
|
|
1794
|
1868
|
Possibly the last surviving slave in Rhode Island. Adjua was enslaved in Africa, brought to
Bristol,
Bristol County,
Rhode Island, in 1803 and sold to the
D'Wolf family, a family of slave traders,
[32] after new enslavement was made illegal in Rhode Island.
[33] Her death in 1868 was noted in several newspapers around the country, including in the South.
[34] James Howland (1758-1859) was also one of Rhode Island's last legal former slaves, and was enslaved until 1842.
[35]
[36] D'Wolf and Howland are likely not the last slaves, due to RI's
gradual emancipation with several legally slaves still listed in the 1840 census, and likely enslaved until the 1843 RI Constitution banned all slavery.
|
Hannah Kelley
|
|
ca. 1760
|
January 15, 1864
|
Died at 103 years old in
Cross Creek,
Cross Creek Township,
Washington County,
Pennsylvania, as possibly the last living former slave in Pennsylvania, formerly owned by John Gardner of Jefferson,
Jefferson County.
[37]
|
Margaret Pint
|
|
1778
|
1857
|
Purportedly the last living former slave in
New York; she was born into slavery in
Westchester County.
[38] Likely not the last living former slave, because final emancipation in
New York did not occur until July 5, 1827.
|
Venus Rowe
|
|
ca. 1754
|
1844
|
Purportedly one of the last living former slaves in
Massachusetts, resided in
Burlington,
Middlesex County.
[39]
|