Some potential sources of useful information are the wills, estate inventories, and estate settlement documents of slave owners. Wills will sometimes name slaves. Estate inventories will name most of the slaves, sometimes with their ages and gender, and the estate settlement documents may also have their names, genders, and ages.
It's detestable, but if you think of slaves as property, then such things as deeds, wills, inventories, bills of sale, debt settlements, and estate settlements can be useful as well. You have to think creatively, and it can be very frustrating because the records are far from complete.
It wouldn't hurt to acquaint yourself with the laws on slavery for the area you are looking in. For example, in Virginia, the law required that free blacks report periodically to the sheriff. So you can sometimes find people there as well.
You might also check with Tennessee universities. Many universities have begun or are beginning projects to recover slavery records. Some of those are online. Others you have to get from reference librarians.
Also, if you don't already, watch Finding Your Roots on PBS. You can sometimes glean new insights on how and where to search for records from the show.
Finally, don't forget DNA. That can be very useful in uncovering racial mixing and identifying slaveowner ancestors.
UPDATE: Here's the slave schedules for 1850 and 1860 for Bedford County and Coffee County. This would be as complete a list of slaveowners as you could find.
1850 - Bedford
1860 - Bedford
1850 - Coffee
1860 - Coffee
Georgette, if you're interested, I'd be happy to help you track down sources and information. PM me, and we can begin an email conversation.
