Bucks County Recorder Of Deeds Gets A Grant To Preserve County Slave Records

Doylestown, PA, February, 2020:   Just in time for Black History month, Recorder of Deeds, Robin Robinson, is pleased to announce that her office has received a $125,000 federal grant to help continue the deed book preservation project that she started a little over a year ago.  This grant, administered by the National Park Service in conjunction with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), was received in the fall of 2019.

The grant, called Save America’s Treasures, funds preservation on nationally significant historic collections.  Besides the deed books, with historic land records, the Recorder of Deeds also has miscellaneous books that contain slave records, both bill of sales and manumissions.  What makes these slave records so unique is that the manumissions, which is the emancipation of slavery, were done prior to the Civil War.  Linda Salley, President of the African American Museum said, “It’s exciting, this is what we’ve been searching for, the true history of Bucks County.  And now it will be revealed.  I’m grateful to be a part of this, to share this history with all of Bucks County and the world.”

“As a history teacher for over two decades, I fully appreciate and support efforts to preserve our shared history,” said Commissioner Bob Harvie. “I want to thank the Recorder of Deeds, Robin Robinson, and the National Park Service for securing grant funding for this important project.”

These books will soon be on their way to a records preservation specialist as the next step in the project.

To contact the Bucks County Recorder of Deeds office, please call 215-348-6209 or visit us on the web at http://www.buckscounty.org/government/RowOfficers/RecorderofDeeds