The 'master's name' question -- and a call to action

...Also, the last owner will generally be the easiest one to locate. Slavery was abolished in 1865, but the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves of the south in 1863. The owner in the 1860 federal census slave schedule was, in most cases, the last owner. From the beginning of the Civil War, especially as emancipation approached, slavery as an institution was on tenuous ground, even with its supporters; slaves became difficult to sell. In fact, the 1863 estate inventory of Charles Carroll of Doughoregan Manor in Howard Co., Maryland, grandson of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, valued each of his slaves (and he owned over one hundred) at only $5. The appraisers stated that this was the case because, in talking with area slave traders, no one was willing to buy slaves for any more than that. An 1864 estate inventory in Prince George's Co., Maryland, refused to assign any value at all to the slaves. In general, sales of slaves greatly declined during the War.