RALEIGH — “People Not Property” is a new Pro Bono Project offering starting in the Fall 2024 semester at Campbell Law School.
In this collaborative project, students work to transcribe pre-Civil War slave deeds in North Carolina for historic preservation purposes, student organizers say. These records will then be available to the public, including historians, archeologists and other professionals.
The project is a collaboration with the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG) Libraries, the North Carolina Division of Archives and Records and the North Carolina Registers of Deeds, among others.
Utilizing a $300,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, participants work to digitize thousands of slave deeds and bills from 26 different counties. These documents are often the only written records of the enslaved person before the Civil War.
“When complete, ‘People Not Property’ will include robust metadata, high-resolution images and searchable abstracts,” states the People Not Property website.
For law students who are interested in joining, “People Not Property” is a volunteer project with no prior experience needed. All training is provided and the hours are flexible, according to the project leaders Robert Massey ’26 and Brenden Silverman ’26.
Though Campbell Law students are just beginning to work with this project, “People Not Property” already has a significant database from deeds across the aforementioned 26 counties, some of which, like Guilford County, wer completed as of 2021, according to Eric Townsend of Elon University.
For more information or to volunteer, please contact Silverman at bvsilverman0421@email.campbell.edu or Massey rmmassey1001@email.campbell.edu.
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL
Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts nearly 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law is celebrating 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 15 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.