Judy Russell, genealogist, lecturer and author, will give a live webinar for the Ridgefield Historical Society on Sunday, March 21, at 3 p.m.
Her topic will be Deemed A Runaway: Black Laws of the North and she’ll explain how those laws resulted in records that have helped Black families trace their ancestors. She will discuss how chattel slavery’s reach was felt not only in the south, but far north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Ms. Russell, who is also an attorney (her blog website is https://www.legalgenealogist.com), notes that the first legal recognition of slave status in the future United States came in a Massachusetts statute in 1641. Connecticut’s slave law followed in 1652. She’ll explain how gradual emancipation in the North as well as restrictive laws for the formerly enslaved, so-called “Black Laws,” resulted in valuable records for tracing African-American families.