Logan Curry
 Staff Writer

Upon entering the International Civil Rights Museum, one may not realize that they are walking on the history which forever changed the course of America.

The Woolworth store was the site of four brazen African American college freshmen, famously known as the A&T Four or the Greensboro Four, first sat in the white’s only section as a non-violent protest.

The Greensboro four caused tremendous uproar, and soon after that, other sit-ins were happening around Greensboro, news spread like wildfire, and the Greensboro sit-ins became one of the most famous non-violent protests during the civil rights movement.

As the famous Woolworth store exists now, it is inside the belly of the International Civil Rights Museum to commemorate the brave Greensboro Four and their impact for the fight for equal rights.

Now, underneath the famous Woolworth store, is another piece of history approximately 100 years prior to the 1960 Greensboro Four, buried in the bottom floor of the museum.

This is the New Slave Deeds exhibit, which showcases genuine manuscripts of slave deeds in Guilford County dating back to about 150 years ago.

This project first began as an effort to provide accessible and accurate genealogical records for residents in Guilford County.

As a result of slavery, these records were previously out of reach for many African Americans who can approximately trace their ancestry back to Guilford County more than a century ago.

Guilford County is the second county in North Carolina to trace their records of deeds of sold slaves for people who have brief knowledge of their ancestry.

This provides a great account of history around Civil War times, and Guilford County made an exhibit in the hope that other North Carolina counties would do the same, and assemble and publicize the records of their slave deeds.

According to Jeff Thigpen, register of deeds in Guilford County, “Finding the information is like finding a needle in a haystack.”

It’s a strenuous process, Thigpen described, of diving into historical books and documents — all of which are handwritten — in the hopes of finding viable records.

For the benefit of historical accuracy and the families who have lost the records of their ancestry, it is necessary to understand the difficulty of this documentation.

However, when records were finally assembled at the Guilford County Register of Deeds, the idea of collaborating with Greensboro’s International Civil Rights Museum to make an exhibit out of the project spurred.

The Registry of Deeds also reached out to History department of North Carolina A&T University, The Museum Studies Department at UNC-Greensboro, Guilford College’s Historic Friends collection, Greensboro Museum, Highpoint Museum and other local organizations to assist the creation of this project.

Thigpen said he would like to recognize Dr. Ann Parsons, who helped support and organize for the exhibit, and Lance Wheeler, a graduate student who diligently researched for the project. Both are a part of UNCG’s Graduate program of Museum Studies and helped in the building of the exhibit.

Four local families had connections to the documents found in Thigpen’s office, and were featured in the exhibit exclusively.

Of these families were the Mendenhalls. The Mendenhalls were a Quaker family that was split down the middle between being for and against slavery. Mendenhall purchased 25 slaves, but, after marrying his second wife, released those slaves.

Many people that think of Guilford County at this time think of the Quakers, who were mainly an abolitionist presence in the area.

Although the Quakers did have a hand in abolitionist efforts, there are 254 deeds recorded tracing the trades and ownership of the slaves to Quakers.

However, Thigpen explained that of the Quakers who purchased slaves, many bought slaves with the intention of helping them escape to freedom. This help existed in the form of Quakers who purchased slaves with the intent to free them later on, or to protect them from ending up in the hands of malicious slave owners who would mistreat them.

The New Slave Deeds exhibit features a plethora of information for those who want to learn more about the history of Quakers’ involvement with slavery, abolition and the stories of slaves themselves.

The exhibit will continue until the end of October at the International Civil Rights Museum.