This year, 10 Million Names is launching a groundbreaking initiative:

To identify and build family trees for 75 Patriots of Color who served during the Revolutionary War.

These individuals—Black, Native American, and of mixed descent—played pivotal roles in America's fight for independence, yet their stories remain largely untold.

In 1861, freedom came early to South Carolina’s Sea Islands.

As Confederate slaveholders fled the advancing Union Army, more than 10,000 enslaved people were liberated across the Lowcountry. With federal and private support, these newly freed men, women, and children began to farm land, earn wages, purchase property, and build independent communities.

This bold initiative—known as the Port Royal Experiment—offered a revolutionary glimpse into what post-slavery America could have been.

Between 1936 and 1938, the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) interviewed more than 2,300 formerly enslaved individuals across the United States. These first-person accounts—raw, emotional, and powerful—form one of the most important archival records of slavery in American history.

Another 1,000 interviews, just as valuable, were never added to the official WPA collection and are preserved at the state level.

The project seeks to examine records from every state before 1865 to extract the names of enslaved people documented in deeds—whether in the Northwest, Midwest, or the South. These names are often buried deep within the records, obscured by difficult handwriting and indexing practices that favor enslavers’ names over those of the enslaved. By systematically reviewing these deeds, volunteers are bringing these names to light, making them searchable and accessible for families and researchers working to recover and reconnect with their histories.

In 1862, the first of more than 200,000 members of the United States Colored Troops boldly pursued their freedom by enlisting in the Union Army. This quest for liberty left a legacy now carried by millions of descendants. It also produced a trail of documents capable of unlocking priceless family history for those who can trace their ancestry to these soldiers—many of whom were not properly honored in their lifetimes but are revered today.