A collection of a variety of legal documents that relate to slavery and African-Americans.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists mainly of a wide vareity of court and legal documents such as, bills of sale, warrants, a manumission document, a certificate of free birth, and documents concerning debt, property, and legal obligations. The documents originated in four states: Alabama, the Carolina colony, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. They span the greatest portion of the era of slavery within what is now the United States. Most of the documents are from Lawrence County, Alabama and may have at one time been created or used as evidence in either an orphans court or civil court case. The documents are arranged in one series in chronological order.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into 1 series:
Series 1: Legal Documents Concerning Slavery, 1710-1865, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Up until the Emancipation Proclamation and the subsequent victory of the Union forces in the Civil War, slaves were considered chattel, property that could be bought and sold. Slaves were a commodity that could be attached for non-payment of debt, used as collateral, given as bequests in a will, and were considered assets of a deceased's estate. As such, they engendered legal battles and the need for a variety of legal documents asserting one's freedom or manumission.
Provenance:
Bill of Sale of "one Negro girl named Nancy, about three years old, from Thomas Maynard to John Stephen Hale, for the sum of 30 pounds, Frederick County, Maryland, June 13, 1796." 2002 acquisition: "Receipt for a slave named Wilson", January 19, 1863, and two carte-de-visite portraits: W.B. Mitchell, July 1880, and Pleasant A. Mitchell, undated. Gifts of Julie Clark, 2008 addendum.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Records of the Assistant Commissioner for State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
Extent:
67 Microfilm
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm
Date:
1865–1869
Summary:
This collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 67 rolls of microfilm described in NARA publication M1048. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869. The records consist of 40 bound volumes and 51 linear feet of unbound documents. The bound volumes include letters and endorsements sent, registers of letters received, orders and circulars issued, and some personnel records. The unbound records consist primarily of letters and reports received.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1048.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Freedmen's Bureau, as the Bureau was commonly known, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507), and extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, appointed by the President in May 1865, served as Commissioner throughout the life of the Bureau, which was terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366).
Although the Bureau was part of the War Department, its work was primarily social and economic in nature. Bureau officials cooperated with benevolent societies in issuing supplies to destitute persons and in maintaining freedmen's schools. Bureau officials also supervised labor contracts between black employees and white employers; helped black soldiers and sailors collect bounty claims, pensions, and backpay; and attended to the disposition of confiscated or abandoned lands and other property.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of assistant commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the States. In Virginia, operations began in June 1865, when Assistant Commissioner Orlando Brown established his headquarters in Richmond. Colonel Brown served until May 1866, when he was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, who remained in office until August 1866. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield served from August 1866 to March 1867, when Brown again assumed office. In accordance with an act of July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), Bureau operations in the States were terminated on January 1, 1869, except for educational functions and the collection of claims. Brown, however, continued to serve as Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent of Education until May 1869.
The organization of the Bureau in Virginia was similar to that of the Bureau headquarters in Washington, D. C. The Assistant Commissioner's staff consisted, at various times, of a Superintendent of Education, and Assistant Adjutant General, an Assistant Inspector General, Chief Medical officer, and a Chief Quartermaster. Subordinate to these officers were the subassistant commissioners in command of the subdistricts. Under the supervision of the subassistant commissioners were civilian and military superintendents, assistant subassistant commissioners, and agents.
From July 4, 1865, to April 14, 1867, Virginia was divided, for administrative purposes, into 10 districts with an agent or superintendent in charge of each. Districts were further divided into subdistricts, each headed by an assistant superintendent. On April 15, 1867, the state was reorganized into 10 subdistricts with a subassistant commissioner in charge of each. Each subdistrict was divided into divisions that were headed by assistant subassistant commissioners. Subdistrict headquarters were established at Alexandria, Fort Monroe, Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond, Winchester, and Wytheville. On January 1, 1869, the subdistricts were reorganized into eight educational subdistricts with an assistant superintendent of schools in charge of each.
From June 1866 to March 1867, Assistant Commissioners Terry and Schofield also served as military commanders of the Department of Virginia and its successor, the Department of the Potomac. The two generals thus created and received records in both capacities. Although Terry and Schofield maintained separate sets of records for this period, the dual nature of their roles is reflected in some of the letterheads used on official correspondence and other records reproduced in this publication. The title "Department of the Potomac," for example, is frequently encountered. Records created by Terry and Schofield while serving in their military capacities are found among the Records of United States Army Continental Commands, 1821–1920, Record Group 393.
The volumes reproduced in this microfilm publication were arbitrarily assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. In the table of contents, the AGO numbers are shown in parentheses were assigned by the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) staff. Numbered blank pages have not been filmed. Indexes precede the volumes to which they pertain.
Related Archival Materials note:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Reconstruction, U.S. history, 1865-1877 Search this
Citation:
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Search this
Extent:
1,917,680 Digital images (1918 digitized microfilm rolls)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Digital images
Date:
1865-1872
Summary:
The Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 1918 rolls of microfilm held by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Arrangement:
The Freedmen's Bureau digital collection consists of 44 collections.
Headquarters
Selected Series of Records Issued by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 -- (M742, 7 rolls)
Registers and Letters Received by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 -- (M752, 74 rolls) FULLY TRANSCRIBED
Records of the Education Division of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1871 -- (M803, 35 rolls)
Superintendents of Education
Alabama -- (M810, 8 rolls) FULLY TRANSCRIBED
Arkansas -- (M980, 5 rolls) FULL YTRANSCRIBED
District of Columbia -- (M1056, 24 rolls) FULLY TRANSCRIBED
North Carolina -- (M843, 38 rolls) PARTIALLY TRANSCRIBED
South Carolina -- (M869, 44 rolls) PARTIALLY TRANSCRIBED
Tennessee -- (M999, 34 rolls) FULLY TRANSCRIBED
Texas -- (M821, 32 rolls) FULLY TRANSCRIBED
Virginia -- (M1048, 67 rolls) Transcription in process
Field Offices
Alabama -- (M1900, 34 rolls)
Arkansas -- (M1901, 23 rolls)
District of Columbia -- (M1902, 21 rolls) PARTIALLY TRANSCRIBED
Florida -- (M1869, 15 rolls)
Georgia -- (M1903, 90 rolls)
Kentucky -- (M1904, 133 rolls)
Louisiana -- (M1905, 111 rolls)
Maryland/Delaware -- (M1906, 42 rolls)
Mississippi - Pre-Bureau Records -- (M1914, 5 rolls)
Mississippi -- (M1907, 65 rolls) Transcription in process
Missouri -- (M1908, 24 rolls)
North Carolina -- (M1909, 78 rolls) PARTIALLY TRANSCRIBED
South Carolina -- (M1910, 106 rolls)
Tennessee -- (M1911, 89 rolls)
Texas -- (M1912, 28 rolls)
Virginia -- (M1913, 203 rolls)
Marriage
Marriage -- (M1875, 5 rolls)
Adjutant General's Office
Office of the Adjutant General, 1872-1878 -- (M2029, 58 rolls).
Freedmen's Savings and Trust
Freedmen's Savings and Trust -- (M816, 27 rolls)
Historical Note:
As the Civil War drew to a close, President Lincoln and members of Congress debated how to reunite the nation, reconstruct Southern society, and help formerly enslaved individuals make the transition to freedom and citizenship. As one response, in March 1865 Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly referred to as The Freemen's Bureau. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard Commissioner of the Bureau. Howard, who served until the Bureau was discontinued, maintained his headquarters at Washington, D.C. Assistant commissioners supervised the work of the Bureau in the States.
The Bureau was responsible for providing assistance to four million formerly enslaved individuals and hundreds of thousands of impoverished Southern whites. The Bureau set up offices in major cities in the 15 Southern and border states and the District of Columbia.
The Bureau provided food, clothing, medical care, and legal representation; promoted education; helped legalize marriages; and assisted African American soldiers and sailors in securing back pay, enlistment bounties and pensions. In addition, the Bureau promoted a system of labor contracts to replace the slavery system and tried to settle freedmen and women on abandoned or confiscated land. The Bureau was also responsible for protecting freedmen and women from intimidation and assaults by Southern whites.
By most accounts, the Bureau was only partially successful. Congress did not provide sufficient funds or staff for the Bureau to be truly effective. The Bureau only operated from 1865 to 1872. It generally failed to protect the freedmen or their political and civil rights from white Southerners intent on re-establishing their local power.
Administered by the War Department, the Bureau followed the record-keeping system inspired by the war effort and the expansion of the Federal Government it required. Those hundreds of thousands of documents provide an unexcelled view into the lives of the newly freed slaves.
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch, International in 2015.
Rights:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865-1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Collection Citation:
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Texas Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
Extent:
32 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1865–1869
Summary:
The collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 32 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M821. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Texas, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869. The records consist of 10 volumes and some unbound documents. The volumes include letters and endorsements sent, orders issued, registers of letters received, and a "record of criminal offenses." The unbound documents consist primarily of letters and reports received.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M821.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Freedmen's Bureau, as the Bureau was commonly known, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507), and extended twice by the acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, appointed Commissioner by the President in May 1865, served in that position throughout the life of the Bureau. In January 1869, in accordance with an act of July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), its operations in the States were terminated except for educational functions and collection of claims. Remaining activities were terminated June 30, 1872, as required by an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366).
Although the Bureau was part of the War Department, its work was primarily social and economic in nature. It cooperated with benevolent societies in issuing supplies to destitute persons and in maintaining freedmen's schools; supervised labor contracts between black employees and white employers; helped black soldiers and sailors to collect bounty claims, pensions, and backpay; and attended to the disposition of confiscated or abandoned lands and other property. In Texas, much of the Bureau's time and effort was expended in protecting freedmen from persecution, intimidation, and physical violence at the hands of whites or other freedmen.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of assistant commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the States. In Texas, operations began in September 1865 when Brig. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory took command as Assistant Commissioner and established headquarters at Galveston. Brig. Gen. Joseph Kiddoo relieved Gregory in May 1866 and was himself succeeded by Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin in January 1867, When Griffin died in office in September 1867, Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds assumed the duties of Assistant Commissioner but was absent from actual duty until November 1867; in the interim Lt. Charles Garretson, the Acting Assistant Adjutant General, acted as Assistant Commissioner. Upon his arrival, Reynolds moved the headquarters from Galveston to Houston, where it remained until the Bureau ended its operations in the State. In January 1869 Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby succeeded Reynolds who subsequently resumed office in April and served until the Bureau, except for the Superintendent of Education, withdrew from Texas in May 1869.
Beginning in 1867 the Assistant Commissioners of Texas also served as the military commanders of Texas. The dual function of the Assistant Commissioners resulted in a succession of changes in the official headings used on correspondence and issuances. The title "Headquarters, Bureau R. F. & A. L." was changed in December 1867 to "Headquarters, Dist. Texas, Bureau R. F. & A. L." The heading "Headquarters, 5th Military Dist., Bureau R. F. & A. L." was used from August to December 1868, when the original heading was readopted. Although the Assistant Commissioners created and received records in both aspects of their dual capacities, they appear to have maintained separate sets of records for each.
The records that they created and received as military commanders of Texas are among Records of United States Army Continental Commands, 1821–1920, Record Group 393, and are not reproduced in this microfilm publication. The Assistant Commissioner's staff at various times consisted of an Assistant Adjutant General (or Acting Assistant Adjutant General), a Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer (or Assistant Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, or Acting Assistant Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer), a Surgeon–in–Chief (or Chief Medical Officer), an Acting Assistant Inspector General (or Inspector), an Inspector of Schools, a Superintendent of Schools (or Superintendent of Education), and an Assistant Superintendent of Education. Upon occasion several of the offices were performed simultaneously by a single individual.
Subordinate to the Assistant Commissioner and his staff were the assistant superintendents, or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the local field offices into which the state was divided for administrative purposes. Before 1867, one or more subassistant commissioners were assigned to particular county offices as was deemed appropriate by the Assistant Commissioner. On February 12, 1867, however, a circular letter issued by the Bureau headquarters in Washington directed that the states be divided into subdistricts consisting of counties designated by the Assistant Commissioner. Accordingly, on April 1, 1867, Assistant Commissioner Griffin issued a circular dividing Texas into 50 numbered districts (later called subdistricts); the number of these field offices was expanded to the maximum of 59 by August 1867.
Before this time, the activities of the Bureau had centered in the southeastern part of the state, but the numbered subdistricts represented an effort to distribute personnel and resources systematically throughout Texas. Each subdistrict was headed by a subassistant commissioner, some of whom had assistant subassistant commissioners as subordinates. The subassistant commissioners and their assistants were generally military officers or former military officers. At the outset of Bureau operations in Texas a number of Civil War Volunteer officers were utilized to fill the subordinate positions and were continued in office after they were mustered out of service. Other civilians, including citizens of Texas, also served in the subdistricts.
GENERAL RECORDKEEPING PRACTICES
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with his superior, Commissioner Howard, in the Washington Bureau headquarters, and with his subordinate officers in the field. Reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers provided the basis for reports to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in Texas. The Assistant Commissioner also corresponded with Bureau officials in other states, Army officers attached to the military commands in Texas, state officials and white citizens, and freedmen and other non–Bureau personnel. The letters varied in nature from complaints and reports of conditions to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the Assistant Adjutant General (or Acting Assistant Adjutant General) handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, outgoing letters often bore his signature and incoming communications were frequently addressed to him instead of the Assistant Commissioner.
The correspondence of the Assistant Commissioner was handled in accordance with typical 19th–century recordkeeping practices. Fair copies of outgoing letters were transcribed in letter books. Replies to incoming letters were frequently written on the letters themselves or on specially prepared wrappers. The replies, known as endorsements, were then copied into endorsement books, and the endorsed letter was returned to the sender or forwarded to another office. Endorsement books usually included a summary of the incoming letter and sometimes previous endorsements that were recorded on it. Incoming correspondence was frequently entered in registers of letters received. In addition to a summary of the contents of the incoming letters, the registers usually included such identifying information as the name and sometimes the office of the writer, the date of receipt, the date of the communication, the place of origin, and the entry number assigned at the time of receipt. The registered letters were folded for filing, generally in three segments, and the information recorded in the registers was transcribed on the outside flap of the letters.
The letters and endorsements sent, registers of letters received, and registered letters received, which are reproduced in this publication, are cross–referenced to each other by the use of various symbols. Letters sent are designated L. S. or L. B. followed by the page and sometimes the volume number. Endorsement books are variously designated E. B., E. M. B., E. & M., and E. & M. B. Registers of letters received are referenced as L. R. or R. L. R. followed by the appropriate file number and sometimes the volume number, or simply by the file number. Frequently the letter itself can be located among the series of registered letters received. Letters sent and endorsements are also cross–referenced to the previous and subsequent entries in their respective series by the use of a fractional symbol. The numerator denotes the previous letter to or endorsement by a particular individual and the denominator refers to the subsequent one. The symbols generally appear in the left margins of the pages, but sometimes within the space allotted for the entry.
The Assistant Commissioner utilized various types of issuances to convey information to staff and subordinate officers. General orders and circulars or circular letters related matters of general interest, including the implementation of Bureau policies throughout the state, duties of subordinate personnel, administrative procedures to be followed, relevant acts of Congress or issuances from Bureau headquarters in Washington, and the appointment or relief of staff officers. Special orders were used to communicate information of less general interest, such as duty assignments of individual field officers.
The letters sent, endorsements, registers of letters received, and issuances all have name indexes in the front of the volumes. These finding aids provide references mainly to personal names but also include a few other citations to places, groups, and titles of organizations.
The volumes reproduced in this publication were originally arranged by type of record and thereunder by volume number. Originally no numbers were assigned to series consisting of single volumes; later all volumes were arbitrarily assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office of the War Department after the records passed into its custody. In this microfilm publication the set of numbers last assigned are in parentheses and are useful as an aid in identifying the volumes. In some volumes, particularly in indexes and alphabetical headings of registers, there are a number of blank numbered pages that have not been filmed.
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
This microfilm collection documents African American artist Joshua Johnson's formal emancipation from slavery on July 15, 1782. The manumission is recorded in pages 298-300 of a volume of Baltimore County Chattel Records, 1773-1788.
Biographical / Historical:
Joshua Johnson, or Johsnston (circa 1765-circa 1830) was an African American portraitist in Baltimore, Maryland. Johnson was the son of a white man and an enslaved woman and was sold to his father, who acknowledged him as his son and agreed to free him when Johnson either completed an apprenticeship with a blacksmith or turned 21, whichever came first. Johnson was listed in Baltimore City directories as a painter or limner beginning in 1796. He is the first documented African American professional artist.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1996 by the Maryland Historical Society.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Narrator David Eaton speaks of slavery and oppression; and freedom from slavery and fighting for the rights that come with it.
Narration. Part of Out of Africa: From West African Kingdoms to Colonization Audiovisual Records. AV003297, AV003300, and AV001371: same content. AV003297 and AV003300: undated. AV001371: dated 19791026.
Biographical / Historical:
The exhibition - Out of Africa: From West African Kingdoms to Colonization - explores early African civilizations, the slave trade, the abolitionist movement and the founding of the first African republic, Liberia. Maps, graphics, and tapes depict the ancient kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Songhei, Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa States. Headdresses, masks, housepots, gold weights, taped music and musical instruments and door panels represent the cultures of Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The journey into slavery is told in a diary of a ship's doctor, the account book of a slave trader and letters of a young passenger. Slave revolts are treated in documents, photographs and portraits. Photographs, books and other publications are included in a section on the Abolitionist movement. Additional documents and photographs tell the story of those who chose to return to Africa. The exibition was organized by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and held there from February 1979 - February 1980. Curated by Louise Daniel Hutchinson.
Local Numbers:
ACMA AV003300
ACMA AV001371
General:
Title transcribed from physical asset.
Series Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Dramatic performance of The Ballad of the Black Dragon, a play based on the life and work of Frederick Douglass. Includes excerpts of speeches delivered by Douglass. Recording does not contain entire play.
Performance. Poor sound quality. Part of ACM Museum Events, PR, and Ceremonies Recordings. Undated.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Records of the Field Offices for the State of Kentucky, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
Extent:
133 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1865–1872
Summary:
This collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 133 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M1904. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Kentucky
headquarters for the Assistant Commissioner and his staff officers and the subordinate field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872. These records consist of bound volumes and unbound records, containing materials that include letters sent and received, monthly reports, registers
of complaints, labor contracts, and other records relating to freedmen's claims and
bounty payments.
Records Description:
These records consist of volumes and unbound records. The volumes reproduced in this publication were originally arranged by type of record and thereunder by volume number. No numbers were assigned to series consisting of single volumes. Years later, all volumes were arbitrarily assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. In this publication, AGO numbers are shown in parentheses to aid in identifying the volumes. The National Archives assigned the volume numbers that are not in parentheses. In some volumes, particularly in indexes and alphabetical headings of registers, there are blank numbered pages that have not been filmed.
The volumes consist of letters and endorsements sent and received, press copies of letters sent, registers of letters received, letters and orders received, registers of freedmen court cases, special orders and circulars issued, registers of claimants, registers of complaints, marriage certificates, and monthly reports forwarded to the Assistant Commissioner. The unbound documents consist of letters and orders received, unregistered letters and narrative reports received, special orders and circulars issued, and general orders and circulars received. The unbound records also contain monthly reports; labor contracts; marriage certificates, and records relating to claims.
Some of the volumes contain more than one type of record, reflecting a common recording practice of clerks and staff officers of that period. In Series 4.6, for example, the volume of contracts for the Columbus field office also contains a register of marriages. Some other examples of additional series within volumes can be found in records of Series 4.18, 4.20, and 4.29. Researchers should read carefully the records descriptions and arrangements in the Table of Contents to make full use of these documents.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1904.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self-sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents, or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non–Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress, approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states. For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. The records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN KENTUCKY
ORGANIZATION
From July 1865 until June 1866, Maj. Gen. C. B. Fisk served as Assistant Commissioner for both Kentucky and Tennessee. Fisk appointed Bvt. Brig. Gen. John Ely to serve as chief superintendent for the Bureau at Kentucky (from March to June 1866). Ely established his headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky, and divided his operations into five subdistricts: Lexington, Louisville, Northwestern, Southern, and Central. Records relating to Kentucky created prior to Ely's tenure may be included among the files of the Assistant Commissioner for Tennessee.
In June 1866, Maj. Gen. Jeff C. Davis was appointed as the first Assistant Commissioner for Kentucky. Superintendents (or subassistant commissioners) employed under Davis were generally responsible for from 3 to 11 counties, and agents (civilian and military) from 1 to 3 counties. Agents received their orders directly from superintendents, and all superintendents were required to submit monthly reports of their activities to the Assistant Commissioner. Brig. Gen. Sidney Burbank succeeded Davis in March 1867 and was replaced by Maj. Benjamin Runkle, who served from January 1869 to May 1869 as Assistant Commissioner and superintendent of education. In August 1870, when superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, Runkle served as claims agent for Kentucky until July 1871. H. H. Ray succeeded Runkle as claims agent, and served in this capacity until December 1871. P. J. Overley became the claims agent in January 1872 and remained in this position until the Bureau's operations in Kentucky were discontinued in April. The major subordinate field offices for the Bureau at Kentucky included those with headquarters at Bowling Green, Lebanon, Lexington, Louisville, and Paducah. For a list of known Kentucky subordinate field office personnel and their dates of service, see the Appendix.
ACTIVITIES
While the Freedmen's Bureau did not begin full operations in Kentucky until June 1866, its activities in the state generally resembled those conducted in other Southern states. The Bureau supervised labor contracts between planters and freedmen, administered justice, assisted freedmen in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen legalize marriages, and worked with black soldiers and their heirs in processing claims relating to military service.
The regulation of written labor agreements between planters and freedmen was a major concern of the Freedmen's Bureau. In a circular issued on July 24, 1865 (Circular Number 2), Assistant Commissioner Fisk told his subordinates that for both Kentucky and Tennessee freedmen must be free to choose their own employers and that wages were to be based on supply and demand rather than a fixed rate. Bureau officials were to negotiate and approve labor contracts and enforce violations by either party. Compulsory unpaid labor was strictly prohibited. In some areas of Kentucky, planters refused to enter into written agreements with freedmen, and freedmen themselves were reluctant to enter into annual agreements for fear of being reduced to slavery. However, with strong reservations, Bureau officers negotiated monthly agreements for them but encouraged freedmen to sign annual contracts that offered yearlong employment. Wages for monthly contracts ranged from $8 to $10 a month for adult male field hands, well below the state's average wage of $15 a month for men. However by the summer of 1866, with the Bureau's insistence, adult laborers in the tobacco region of the state received $25 per month and laborers in the farm belt areas earned $12 per month. In some Kentucky counties, freedmen received a third of the crops rather than wages. However, because of the shortage of laborers in the state, freedmen were able to demand higher wages, and thus over time the sharecropping system became less attractive.1
The Bureau worked to protect the rights and legal status of freedmen, which, despite the ending of slavery by the 13th Amendment, were still endangered by the persistence of the old slave codes. On May 30, 1865, Commissioner Howard issued Circular Number 5, authorizing Assistant Commissioners to establish courts in states where the old codes existed and the right of blacks to testify against whites was prohibited. Gen. Fisk subsequently announced to the citizens of Kentucky that freedmen courts would operate in the state as long as freedmen weren't given the same rights as whites. By 1867, as a result of several Federal court rulings, Bureau courts ceased to operate in Kentucky. When state courts denied black testimony, the agency, under provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, took cases involving freedmen to the U. S. District Court of Kentucky. In instances where freedmen lacked resources to pursue their cases in Federal court, the Bureau provided transportation for witnesses and other forms of assistance. Despite the Bureau's efforts to safeguard rights and secure justice for freedmen in Kentucky, admitting the testimony of blacks against whites still remained an issue in 1869 when Bureau Assistant Commissioners and their subordinates were withdrawn from the states. However, in January 1872, with a change in public opinion and pressure from the courts, the Kentucky State Legislature amended state law and allowed blacks to testify.
When Gen. John Ely began his duties as chief superintendent for Kentucky under Gen. Fisk's supervision, there were 30 freedmen schools and more than 2,000 students. The schools were organized and maintained by black churches, with black clergy as instructors. Freedmen schools faced widespread violence and white opposition, and in many cases, teachers and students were forced to abandon efforts to maintain school buildings. Ely and his subordinate assisted freedmen in reopening schools that had been forced to close.2 Under Maj. Gen. Jeff C. Davis, who replaced Ely in the summer of 1866, the number of freedmen schools increased to 54, with some 67 teachers and more than 3,200 students. Excluding the schools established at Lexington and Covington under the auspices of the Cincinnati Branch of the Western Freedmen's Aid Society and the Cincinnati Branch of the American Missionary Association, the freedmen schools were taught by black teachers who were supported by subscriptions from parents and black religious institutions. The Bureau, however, rented the building for the school at Lexington. Under Brig. Gen. Sidney Burbank, who succeeded Davis in March 1867, the number of freedmen schools increased to 96, accommodating about 5,000 students aged 6 – 18. By September 1868, in spite of continued violence and opposition, the Bureau had provided support for 135 day schools and 1 night school, serving more than 6,000 students.3
On February 14, 1866, the Kentucky State Legislature passed an act legalizing marriages freedmen had entered into during slavery and authorizing black ministers to solemnize such marriages. Nearly 2 weeks later, on February 26, 1866, Assistant Commissioner Fisk issued Circular Number 5, in accordance with the Kentucky law, directing those freedmen who sought to solemnize a marriage to the county clerk for a marriage license. If the county clerk refused to issue a license, Bureau officials in the subdistricts were authorized to solemnize marriages and issue marriage certificates. Local Bureau officers were required to maintain a register of freedmen marriages and forward a report of such marriages to the Assistant Commissioner at the end of each month. Subordinate Bureau officers were also told to notify persons living as man and wife who had not legalized their marriage, to report to the Bureau to take the necessary steps to do so. Persons who failed to comply were guilty of a misdemeanor and were to be punished by a fine and imprisonment.4 This publication reproduces marriage licenses, certificates, and registers of marriages for the Kentucky subdistricts at Augusta, Bowling Green, Columbus, Cynthiana, Owensboro, Paducah, Mt. Sterling, and Winchester. A single freedmen marriage license and a marriage certificate from Kentucky, filed in the Bureau's headquarters records, has been reproduced on roll 1 of National Archives Microfilm Publication M1875, Marriage Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Washington Headquarters of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861–1869.
In addition to assisting freedmen in solemnizing slave marriages and efforts to sustain the black family, the Bureau helped discharged soldiers, sailors, marines, and their heirs in claims for back pay, bounty payments, and pensions. In accordance with a law passed by Congress on March 29, 1867 (15 Stat. 26), making the Bureau the sole agent for payment of claims relating to black veterans, Bureau disbursing officers assisted freedmen in the preparation and settlement of military claims. In November 1866, in spite of the difficulties in locating veterans who fled the state for fear of violence, Assistant Commissioner Davis reported that he had forwarded more than 260 black soldiers' claims for back pay and bounty payments to Commissioner Howard's office in Washington, DC. In the following year, Assistant Commissioner Burbank reported that his office had assisted nearly 500 veterans with military claims, and in the fall of 1868, for the year ending October 10, 1868, that more than 1,100 received bounty payments through his office.5
ENDNOTES
1 House Ex. Doc. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., Serial Vol. 1256, p. 48. See also Victor B. Howard, Black Liberation in Kentucky: Emancipation and Freedom, 1862–1884 (Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1983), pp. 96 – 97.
2 See report of Maj. J. C. Davis, August 23, 1866, "Synopses of Letters and Reports Relating to Conditions of Freedmen and Bureau Activities in the States, January 1866–March 1869," Vol. 135, Records of the Commissioner, Record Group 105, NARA, pp. 294 – 395.
3 Ross A. Webb, "The Past Is Never Dead, It's Not Even Past: Benjamin P. Runkle and the Freedmen's Bureau in Kentucky, 1866–1870," The Register of Kentucky Historical Society Vol. 84, No. 4 (Autumn 1986), pp. 348 – 350.
4 See Victor B. Howard, Black Liberation in Kentucky, pp. 121 – 125.
5 Senate Ex. Doc. No. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, p. 67; See also Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, Kentucky, 1867 and 1868, Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Record Group 105, NARA.
Freedmen's Bureau Personnel in Kentucky:
This list provides the names and dates of service of chief medical officers and known Freedmen's Bureau personnel at selected subordinate field offices in Kentucky. Additional information regarding persons assigned to various field offices might be found among the Bureau's Washington headquarters station books and rosters of military officers and civilians on duty in the states and other appointment-related records.
LOUISVILLE
July 1866–Mar. 1867 -- Chief Medical Officer F. S. Town
Mar.–Nov. 1867 -- Chief Medical Officer W. R. De Witt, Jr.
Nov. 1867–June 1869 -- Chief Medical Officer R. A. Bell
BOWLING GREEN
July 1866–July 1867 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner Charles F. Johnson
July–Dec. 1867 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner Joseph C. Rodriguez
Jan.–Feb. 1868 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner Louis A. Reynolds
Feb.–June 1868 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown
BOWLING GREEN
Jan.–Mar. 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner R. W. Thing (Superintendent)
Sept. 1866–July 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Joseph C. Rodriguez (Subassistant Comm.)
July–Dec. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner James A. Shepley (Subassistant Commissioner)
BRANDENBURG
Sept. 1866–June 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner York A. Woodward (Superintendent)
May–June 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner James A. Bolton (Subassistant Commissioner)
BURKSVILLE
Oct. 1866–July 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George W. Kingsbury
COLUMBUS
Mar.–Apr. 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Lt. James F. Bolton (Superintendent, Paducah)
Apr. 1866–Mar. 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Lt. James F. Bolton (Superintendent)
Mar.–Apr. 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Lt. James F. Bolton (Subassistant)
Apr.–July 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Capt. Emerson H. Liscum (Subassistant)
COVINGTON
Jan. 1866–July 1868 -- Superintendent John L. Graham
DANVILLE
Jan.–May 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner William Goodloe (Superintendent)
June 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner W. R. Roume (Superintendent)
Apr.–Aug. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner W. R. Roume (Subassistant)
Aug.–Dec. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown (Subassistant)
Dec. 1867–Apr. 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Martin Norton (Subassistant)
Feb.–June 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner H. G. Thomas (Chief Subassistant)
GREENSBURG
Oct. 1866–Nov. 1866 -- Superintendent and Chief Agent George Duff (Superintendent)
Mar. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Superintendent and Chief Agent P. S. Reeves (Chief Agent)
HENDERSON
Feb.–May 1868 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner James McCleery
May 1868 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner V. H. Echorn
June–July 1868 -- Chief Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown
HENDERSON
Jan.–Dec. 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant F. F. Cheaney (Superintendent)
Apr.–Sept. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Wells Bailey (Subassistant)
Jan.–July 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant V. H. Echorn (Subassistant)
LEXINGTON
Feb.–Mar. 1866 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant John Ely (Chief)
Apr.–June 1866 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant James H. Rice (Chief Superintendent)
June 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant R. E. Johnson (Chief Superintendent)
Aug.–Oct. 1866 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant James H. Rice (Acting Chief Superintendent)
Oct. 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant R. E. Johnson (Acting Chief Superintendent)
Apr. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant R. E. Johnson (Chief Subassistant)
LEXINGTON
June 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant James H. Rice (Superintendent)
Apr.–June 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant James H. Rice (Subassistant)
June–July 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant W. R. Montmolin (Acting Subassistant)
July–Oct. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Patrick H. Flood (Subassistant)
LOUISVILLE
July–Aug. 1865 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner S. A. Porter (Superintendent)
Aug.–Nov. 1865 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner H. A. McCaleb (Superintendent)
Nov. 1865 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner E. D. Kennedy (Acting Superintendent)
Mar.–Apr. 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner Walter Babcock (Superintendent)
Apr. 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown (Superintendent)
Apr. 1866–June 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner C. H. Frederick (Superintendent)
June 1866 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown (Acting Superintendent)
July 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner C. H. Frederick (Superintendent)
July 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown (Assistant Superintendent)
Apr.–July 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner R. W. Roberts (Subassistant)
July 1867–July 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner J. Catlin (Subassistant)
July–Dec. 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner J. Catlin (Chief Subassistant)
PADUCAH
Apr.–Dec. 1866 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner John H. Donovan (Chief Superintendent)
Aug. 1866 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner John F. Smith (Acting Chief Superintendent)
Dec. 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner W. James Kay (Chief Superintendent)
Apr.–June 1867 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner W. James Kay (Chief Subassistant)
June 1867–Mar. 1868 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner W. James Kay (Chief Subassistant)
Apr.–July 1868 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner P. T. Swaine (Chief Subassistant)
July–Dec. 1868 -- Chief Superintendent and Chief Subassistant Commissioner A. Benson Brown (Chief Subassistant)
PADUCAH (McCracken County)
Aug. 1865–Apr. 1866 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner A. M. York (Superintendent)
Apr.–Nov. 1866 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner John F. Smith (Superintendent)
Feb.–Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner C. D. Smith (Superintendent)
Apr. 1867 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner C. D. Smith (Chief Agent)
Apr.–May 1867 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner C. D. Smith (Subassistant)
May–Nov. 1867 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner C. D. Smith (Chief Agent)
May–July 1868 -- Superintendent, Chief Agent, and Subassistant Commissioner R. S. Egelston (Subassistant)
PARIS
Mar. 1866 -- Agent Joseph A. Hilduth
Mar.–May 1866 -- Agent Thomas I. Elliott
June–July 1866 -- Agent R. W. Hutchraft
RUSSELLVILLE
Mar. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner H. A. Hunter
Apr.–June 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner M. E. Billings
SMITHLAND
Mar. 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Agent J. Bone Thompson
Mar.–June 1867 -- Agent Solomon Littlefield
WINCHESTER
Feb. and Sept. 1866 -- Superintendent H. C. Howard
Feb.–June and Sept. 1866 -- Superintendent George W. Gist
Apr. 1866 -- Superintendent R. C. Nicholas
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
Extent:
106 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1865–1872
Summary:
The collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 106 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M1910. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the South Carolina field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, including previously unfilmed records of the Office of the Assistant Commissioner, and records of the offices of staff officers, subordinate officers, and subordinate field offices. These records consist of bound volumes and unbound records, including letters and endorsements sent and received, orders and circulars, monthly reports, and other records relating to freedmen's complaints and claims.
Records Description:
These records consist of volumes and unbound records. The volumes reproduced in this microfilm publication were originally arranged by the Freedmen's Bureau by type of record and thereunder by volume number. No numbers were assigned to series consisting of single volumes. Years later, all volumes were assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. In this microfilm publication, AGO numbers are shown in parentheses to aid in identifying the volumes. The National Archives assigned the volume numbers that are not in parentheses. In some volumes, particularly in indexes and alphabetical headings of registers, there are blank numbered pages that have not been filmed.
The volumes consist of letters and endorsements sent and received, registers of letters received, unregistered letters received, general and special orders and circulars received, registers of claimants for bounties and pay arrearages, and registers of indentures of apprenticeship. The unbound documents consist of letters and orders received, unregistered letters received and narrative reports received, special orders and circulars issued, general and special orders and circulars received, and other series.
A few series were created in 1862–64, prior to the formation of the Bureau, by Union military commanders and U. S. Treasury agents, and included in the Bureau records. Some of the volumes contain more than one type of record, reflecting a common recording practice of clerks and staff officers in that period. On Roll 32, for example, the Register of Letters Received, Vol. 1 (95), also contains a register of complaints. Researchers should read carefully the records descriptions and arrangements in the table of contents to make full use of these records.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1910.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self-sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non–Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant
Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.
For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. The records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN SOUTH CAROLINA
ORGANIZATION
Bvt. Maj. Gen. Rufus Saxton, who directed the "Port Royal Experiment," was appointed Assistant Commissioner for South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on June 10, 1865. Shortly after Saxton assumed his new duties, Howard appointed Assistant Commissioners for Georgia and Florida. Thus, by September 1865 Saxton was, for all practical purposes, Assistant Commissioner solely for South Carolina. Generally, the records pertaining to Georgia and Florida among those of the Assistant Commissioner of South Carolina were created during this period.
The organization of the Bureau in South Carolina was similar to that of the Bureau headquarters in Washington, DC. Saxton's original staff included an assistant adjutant general, an inspector general, a superintendent of education, an assistant quartermaster, a chief commissary of subsistence, and an aide–de–camp.
Officers subordinate to Saxton were responsible for administering the policies of the Bureau in the subdistricts of South Carolina. These subdistricts, as they finally evolved in February 1867, were Anderson, Beaufort, Columbia, Charleston, Lynn, Darlington, Edisto, Greenville, Georgetown, Hilton Head, the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, Unionville, and Williamsburg. The subdistricts were administered by subassistant commissioners. Officers or civilians serving under the subassistant commissioner were called agents.
During the period of the Bureau's existence in South Carolina, there were three Assistant Commissioners operating from three different cities. Gen. Rufus Saxton established his headquarters in Beaufort, but in September 1865 he moved his headquarters to Charleston. Bvt. Maj. Gen. Robert K. Scott succeeded Saxton in January 1866 and carried out the duties of Assistant Commissioner until July 1868 when he resigned to become Governor of South Carolina. Just before Scott resigned, the headquarters was moved to Columbia. Bvt. Col. John R. Edie assumed the position of Assistant Commissioner for South Carolina in August 1868 and served until May 1869. Bvt. Maj. Horace Neide, superintendent of education for South Carolina, acted as Assistant Commissioner until May 31, 1869, when the office was abolished in South Carolina.
Neide and his successor, Bvt. Maj. Edward L. Deane, served as superintendent of education until June 1870 when that office was discontinued. Many of the series of records begun by Assistant Commissioners that were continued by superintendents of education will be found with those of Assistant Commissioners. The Bureau functioned in South Carolina until June 1872, but its activities after June 1870 were mainly in the area of military claims.
ACTIVITIES
The major activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina generally resembled those conducted in other states. The Bureau issued rations and provided medical relief to both freedmen and white refugees, supervised labor contracts between planters and freedmen, administered justice, and worked with benevolent societies in the establishment of schools.
When Rufus Saxton assumed office as the Assistant Commissioner for South Carolina, he found tens of thousands of freedmen and white refugees in dire need of relief. By mid–summer 1865, with help from the offices of the Commissary General of the Army, the Quartermaster General, and the Surgeon General, Saxton provided more than 300,000 rations, clothing, and medical supplies to nearly 9,000 destitute persons. In 1866, in an effort to encourage self–sufficiency and adhere to Commissioner Howard's policy of supplying relief only to the needy, Saxton's successor, Gen. Robert K. Scott, drastically reduced the number of rations issued and limited them to blacks and whites in hospitals and orphan asylums. Despite Scott's efforts, however, persistent crop storages and crop failures in 1866–67 required the agency to provide aid and other forms of relief to ward off large–scale starvation and destitution. In 1868, the Bureau adopted a crop–lien system in which planters (both black and white) were given rations to distribute to laborers, and a lien was placed against their crops as collateral for repayment for the value of the rations. While the crop lien plan was well–conceived and helpful for both the employers and their employees, many planters were unable, and in some cases unwilling, to repay their loans. By 1870, when the Bureau's relief program ended in South Carolina, most of the monies associated with the loans remained outstanding.1
To further aid and provide medical relief to the "Sick and Suffering," the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina established a medical department during the summer and fall of 1865. Under the guidance of the surgeon–in–chief, W. R. De Witt, the Bureau established several camps, dispensaries, and hospitals with a staff of 16 contract physicians and 29 attendants. In spite of limited funding resources, the agency treated more than 8,000 freedmen and white refugees, and by the end of 1866, it provided care for close to 5,000 whites and more than 40,000 blacks. In the latter part of 1868, Bureau hospitals were either closed or turned over to local officials, and dispensaries were discontinued. From its beginning in the summer of 1865 to 1868, the Bureau's medical department in South Carolina provided medical assistance to about 150,000 blacks and 20,000 whites.2
The regulation of written labor agreements between planters and freedmen was a major concern of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina. In orders issued on August 28, 1865 (General Orders Number 11), Assistant Commissioner Saxton charged his subordinates with seeing that "Fair and Liberal" contracts were made between planters and freedmen. Officers were told that agreements that called for a share of the crop were best suited for both landlords and laborers. Many freedmen who believed that the Federal Government planned to divide their former owners' land among them, were reluctant to sign contracts. This was especially true among freedmen on the Sea Islands who had been issued possessory titles under Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Orders Number 15, which set aside for the settlement of blacks "Islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice–fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the Saint John's River, Fla." Nonetheless, with the Bureau's insistence and the threat of being forcibly removed from land they occupied, some 8,000 contracts were signed, and nearly 130,000 freedmen worked under labor agreements between the years 1865 and 1866. On January 1, 1867, Saxton's successor, Gen. R. K. Scott, issued a circular (Circular Number 1) publishing model contracts for a share of the crop and wages. Under the terms of the contracts blacks were entitled to housing, rations, medical attention, fuel, and at least half of the crop. Freedmen who worked for wages were generally paid between $8 and $12 per month and were responsible for supplying their own rations. By the end of 1868, the Bureau closed its operations in South Carolina and thus brought an end to its free labor system.3
Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen was also a priority of the Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states, including South Carolina, enacted a series of laws commonly known as "Black Codes" that restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Freedmen were often given harsh sentences for petty crimes and in some instances were unable to get their cases heard in state courts. In a circular issued by Commissioner Oliver Otis Howard on May 30, 1865 (Circular Number 5), Assistant Commissioners were authorized, in places where civil law had been interrupted and blacks' rights to justice were being denied, to adjudicate cases between blacks themselves and between blacks and whites.4
However, before the Freedmen's Bureau's involvement in South Carolina, provost courts and special military commissions served as the primary institutions for administering justice. Established by the Department of the South in the summer of 1865, under General Orders Number 102, provost courts could impose fines up to $100 and sentences of two months (later increased to $500 and six months, respectively). These courts, although subject to change, consisted of one military officer and two civilians who handled cases generally involving larceny and assault and battery. Military commissions were responsible for overseeing more serious cases involving burglary and murder, and functioned under rules similar to those for military courts–martial. In an agreement reached in September 1865 with South Carolina's provisional governor Benjamin F. Perry, military courts were given
responsibility over all cases involving blacks, and state courts were to handle cases involving whites. The Freedmen's Bureau courts, which began to assume a greater role in these issues after the passage of the second Freedmen's Bureau law (July 1866), were thus limited in their efforts to protect the rights of freedmen. After the South Carolina Legislature adopted a measure in October 1866 recognizing freedmen's rights and making black testimony admissible in state courts, all cases
involving freedmen were turned over to state courts.5
When Reuben Tomlinson became superintendent of the education division of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina in early summer 1865, he found more than nine schools with about 9,000 students already in operation along the coastal region. Tomlinson sought to expand the number of schools throughout the state and increase enrollment. In the summer of 1866, he reported that freedmen schools had increased to 54 with 130 teachers providing instruction for a daily average of more than 5,000 pupils. By June 1867, an additional 19 schools had been added to the system, along with 10 new teachers. During the 1866–67 school year, the Bureau provided nearly $25,000 (primarily for rent and school repairs) of the $107,000 spent on freedmen schools. However, by the end of the 1868 school term, the Bureau's educational efforts were on the decline. Limited funds, waning support from Northern benevolent societies, and a steady decrease in freedmen contributions reversed some of the early progress made in the establishment of the freedmen school system. The number of schools in operation during the 1868 and 1869 school terms dropped from 73 to 49. By the summer of 1870, with all funds exhausted, the Bureau's educational program in South Carolina came to a close, and its buildings were turned over to benevolent societies.6
ENDNOTES
1 Martin Abbott, The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, 1865–1872 (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1967), esp. pp. 37 – 48; see also Senate Ex. Doc. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, pp. 112 – 113.
2 Abbott, The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, pp. 10 – 50.
3 Howard C. Westwood, "Sherman Marched—and Proclaimed Land for the Landless," South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 85 (1984): pp. 33 – 50; For a discussion of the "Free Labor" system in South Carolina, see Abbott, The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, pp. 66 – 81; Senate Ex. Doc. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, pp. 113 – 115.
4 House Ex. Doc. 11, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. Serial Vol. 1255, p. 45.
5 Abbott, The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, pp. 99 – 105; Thomas D. Morris, "Equality, 'Extraordinary Law,' and The South Carolina Experience, 1865–1866," South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 83 (1982), pp. 15 – 33.
6 Abbott, The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, pp. 85 – 98; Senate Ex. Doc. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, p. 115.
Freedmen's Bureau Personnel in South Carolina:
This list provides the names and dates of service of known Freedmen's Bureau personnel at selected subordinate field offices for South Carolina. Additional information regarding persons assigned to various field offices might be found among the Bureau's Washington headquarters station books and rosters of military officers and civilians on duty in the states and other appointment–related records.
CLAIMS DIVISION
Dec. 1866 -- Office for Colored Applicants for Bounties and Bounty Pensions A. McL. Crawford
Dec. 1866–Oct. 1867 -- Officer in Charge A. McL. Crawford
Jan. 1868 -- Agent in Charge John B. Dennis
Jan.–July 1868 -- Agent in Charge John B. Dennis
Aug. 1868–Jan. 1869 -- Subassistant Commissioner (6th Subdistrict, Charleston) W. H. Danilson
Jan.–May 1869 -- Clerk in Charge William F. De Knight
Sept. 1869–Feb. 1870 -- Claims Officer Capt. F. C. Von Schirach
Mar.–Oct. 1870 -- Agent Charles Garretson
ABBEVILLE COURT HOUSE
Mar. 1866–Oct. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner C. R. Becker
Oct.–Dec. 1867 -- Agent Charles S. Allen
Dec. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Agent C. C. Perry
Feb.–Apr. 1868 -- Agent O. H. Hart
May–Aug. 1868 -- Agent W. F. De Knight
Aug.–Nov. 1868 -- Clerk W. F. De Knight
AIKEN (Bureau District of Anderson)
Aug.–Oct. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner Benjamin P. Runkle
Oct. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner E. R. Chase
Oct. 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner S. Walker
Feb.–Mar. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner S. Walker
Mar. 1867–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner (Subdistrict at Aiken) S. Walker
AIKEN (Edgefield District)
Feb.–Aug. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner J. Devereux (at Hamburg)
Aug.–Sept. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner George P. McDougall (at Aiken)
Sept.–Nov. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner William Stone
Nov. 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner William Stone (Edgefield and Barnwell Districts)
Feb.–Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William Stone
Jan.–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William Stone (Edgefield District)
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William Stone (2nd Subdistrict at Aiken)
ANDERSON COURT HOUSE (Anderson District)
Mar.–Sept. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner William Stone
Sept. 1866–Mar. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner G. P. McDougall
Mar.–Apr. 1867 -- Agent G. P. McDougall
Apr.–Sept. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner G. P. McDougall
BARNWELL (Barnwell District)
Mar.–May 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. R. Chase (at Barnwell)
June–Nov. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. R. Chase (at Aiken)
Mar. 1867–Apr. 1868 -- Agent William A. Nerland (at Barnwell)
BEAUFORT
Sept. 1865–Jan. 1866 -- Agent H. G. Judd
Feb.–Nov. 1867 -- Agent George W. Gile
Mar.–Aug. 1868 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner George W. Gile
Oct. 1868–April 1871 -- Collecting Agent C. H. Wright
BEAUFORT (Hospital)
Oct. 1865–Dec. 1868 -- Surgeon A. J. Wakefield
BEAUFORT (Contraband Department)
Apr.–June 1862 -- Superintendent of Contrabands, Department of the South Sam B. Broad
June–Oct. 1862 -- Superintendent of Contrabands, Department of the South James D. Strong
Oct. 1862–May 1863 -- Superintendent of Contrabands, Department of the South John E. Webster
May 1863–Jan. 1864 -- Clerk Robert M. Taitt
CHESTER
Feb.–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner D. D. Lind
July–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner M. J. De Forest
Jan.–July 1868 -- Agent M. J. De Forest
COLUMBIA (District of Columbia)
Jan.–Apr. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner William H. H. Holton (1st Subdistrict, District of West South Carolina)
Apr.–June 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner William H. H. Holton (District of West South Carolina)
June–July 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner William H. H. Holton (District of Columbia)
July 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner Benjamin P. Runkle
July 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner William J. Harkisheimer
Jan.–Feb. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner J. Durell Greene
Feb.–May 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner J. Durell Greene (District of Columbia)
June–Oct. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner William J. Harkisheimer (District of Columbia)
Oct.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner William J. Harkisheimer (at Columbia)
Jan.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent William J. Harkisheimer (at Columbia)
DARLINGTON
Apr.–Dec 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner George W. Gile
Jan.–Feb. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner George Pingree
Feb.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George Pingree
Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George Pingree
Mar.–Apr. 1867 -- Agent M. J. De Forest
Jan.–Aug. 1868 -- Agent George Pingree
June 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner M. J. De Forest
Aug–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George Pingree
GEORGETOWN
Nov.–Dec. 1865 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner A. J. Willard
Dec. 1865–Aug. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner B. F. Smith
Jan.–Oct. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner John Chance
Oct.–Dec. 1867 -- Aid–de–Camp E. W. Everson
Dec. 1867–July 1868 -- Agent W. Markwood
Aug. 1868–Jan. 1869 -- Clerk W. Markwood
GREENVILLE
Apr.–Oct. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner A. E. Niles
Oct. 1866–May 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner J. W. De Forest
June–Dec. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner J. W. De Forest
Jan.–Feb. 1868 -- Agent W. R. Hoyt
Feb.–May 1868 -- Agent W. F. De Knight
May–July 1868 -- Agent Carroll Neide
Aug. 1868 -- Clerk Carroll Neide
HOPKINS TURN OUT
July–Aug. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon Samuel L. Orr
Sept. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon Samuel L. Orr (at St. Helena Island)
Oct. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon Samuel L. Orr (at Ladies Island)
JOHNS ISLAND
Oct. 1865–Mar. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon B. Burgh Smith (at St. Pauls Parish)
May–Sept. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon B. Burgh Smith (at Johns Island)
Dec. 1866–Sept. 1867 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon I. L. Beckett
Oct. 1867–May 1868 -- Acting Assistant Surgeon S. B. Thompson
Jan.–Apr. 1868 -- Special Agent S. B. Thompson
KINGSTREE
Jan.–Mar. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner A. E. Niles
Apr.–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner M. J. De Forest
June–Dec. 1867 -- Agent A. Swails
Jan.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent Garrett Nagle
LAURENSVILLE
Dec. 1867–Mar. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner John R. Edie
Apr.–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Alfred Smith
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Clerk Nathaniel Freeman
MARION
June 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George E. Pingree
June 1867–Mar. 1868 -- Agent J. E. Lewis
July–Aug. 1868 -- Agent William H. Lockwood
MONCKS CORNER
Jan.–Apr. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner F. W. Liedtke
Apr. 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner F. W. Liedtke
May 1867–Mar. 1868 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner F. W. Liedtke
MOUNT PLEASANT
Feb.–June 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner D. T. Corgbin
July 1866–Mar. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Edward F. O'Brien
Apr.–Oct. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. W. Everson
Oct. 1867–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Dailson
ORANGEBURG
Aug. 1865–Mar. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner E. A. Koylay
Mar.–July 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner L. C. Skinner
July 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner William H. H. Holton
Jan.–June 1868 -- Agent William H. H. Holton
June–July 1868 -- Agent Edmund S. Woog
Aug.–Nov. 1868 -- Clerk Joseph A. Greene
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent Robert Ahern
ROCKVILLE
Feb. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. W. Everson
Mar.–June 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner J. E. Cornelius
June–Dec. 1866 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner J. E. Cornelius
Jan.–June 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner E. W. Everson
June–Dec. 1867 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner Henry McHenry
SUMMERVILLE
Sept.–Oct. 1865 -- Subassistant Commissioner James C. Beecher
Nov. 1865–Jan. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner Daniel F. Towles
Apr.–May 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner James C. Beecher
June 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Garrett Nagle
June 1866–Mar. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner A. P. Caraher
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1864-1869.
Extent:
12 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1864-1869
Summary:
This collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 12 rolls of microfilm described in NARA publication M1026. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1864-69. The records consist of 18 bound volumes and nearly 2.4 meters (8 feet) of unbound documents. The bound volumes include letters, telegrams, and endorsements sent; registers of employees; accounts with freedmen schools; and other records. The unbound documents consist primarily of letters and telegrams sent and reports sent and received.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1026.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Freedmen's Bureau, as the Bureau was commonly known, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507) and extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173) and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat.83). Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, appointed by the President in May 1865, served as Commissioner throughout the life of the Bureau until it was terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366).
Although the Bureau was part of the War Department, its work was primarily social and economic in nature. Bureau officials cooperated with benevolent societies in issuing supplies to destitute persons and in maintaining freedmen's schools. Bureau officials also supervised labor contracts between black employees and white employers; helped black soldiers and sailors collection bounty claims, pensions, and backpay; and attended to the disposition of confiscated or abandoned lands and other property.
The act of March 3, 1865 authorized the appointment of assistant commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the States. In Louisiana, operations began in June 1865, when Chaplain Thomas W. Conway took command as Assistant Commissioner at Louisiana Bureau headquarters in New Orleans. Other Assistant or Acting Assistant Commissioners for the State of Louisiana were Generals Absalom Baird, R.C. Buchanan, James S. Fullerton, Edward Hatch, Joseph A. Mower, Philip H. Sheridan, and Lt. Col. William H. Wood. In accordance with an act of July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193) Bureau operations within the States were terminated January 1, 1869, except for educational functions and the collection of claims.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard on July 12, 1865, assistant commissioners were instructed to designate an officer in each state to serve as "general superintendent of schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, some degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the States, when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867 Alvord was divested of the financial responsibilities and was redesignated General Superintendent of Education.
In the two years following the April 1862 occupation of New Orleans by Union troops, various civilian and military organizations established schools to educate freedmen in Louisiana. A more systematic educational program began with Gen. Nathaniel Banks' order of March 22, 1864 (Department of the Gulf General Order 38), which established a Board of Education to govern the organization of freedmen's schools in Louisiana. B. Rush Plumly was appointed head of the Board; Lt. Edwin M. Wheelock was appointed supervisor. Schools under the Board's jurisdiction were supported mainly by a tax on citizens recently disloyal to the Union.
On June 29, 1865, Assistant Commissioner Conway was authorized to take charge of the schools in Louisiana on behalf of the newly created Freedmen's Bureau. He appointed Capt. H.R. Pease Superintendent of Education on July 5, 1865. Wheelock and Plumly were dismissed, but most of the other officers and enlisted men who had served as subordinate school officials under the old Board of Education were retained. Pease's successors as Superintendent of Education for Louisiana included Bvt. Maj. A. G. Studer; Lieutenants F. R. Chase, J. M. Lee, L. O. Parker, and H. H. Pierce; and E. W. Mason.
For administrative purposes, the Superintendent divided the state into seven divisions with an assistant superintendent in charge of each. The divisions were headquartered in Alexandria, Amite City, Bragg Home Colony, Greenville Colony, New Orleans, Shreveport, and Thibadeaux. Other officials included school directors, who were normally assigned to a parish; city superintendents of schools; and teachers. Bureau officials (sub-assistant commissioners, assistant subassistant commissioners, and agents) in charge of subdistricts and parishes acted as inspectors of the schools in their areas and submitted periodic reports to the Superintendent of Education and the Assistant Commissioner.
The schools maintained by the Bureau in Louisiana included day schools for children, night schools for adults, and Sabbath (Sunday) schools for both groups. Reading, writing, and arithmetic received the greatest emphasis in most Bureau schools. Teachers were recruited from the local white population, from among freedmen, and from the North. Among the more active national societies recruiting teachers from Northern States and otherwise aiding the freedmen in Louisiana were the Methodist Freedmen's Aid Society, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the American Free Mission Baptist Society, and the American Missionary Association.
The Bureau's responsibility for education included establishing and maintaining schools and examining and appointing teachers. Bureau funds were used to pay for constructing and repairing school buildings, for renting properties used for educational purposes, and for providing teachers with transportation. Whenever possible, the Bureau also provided protection to teachers, pupils, and school property. Teachers' salaries were normally paid by northern aid societies, from taxes levied against the Southern populace, or from contributions by freedmen. Bureau policy dictated that, whenever possible, subscriptions were to be solicited from freedmen for the establishment of schools and that tuition was to be charged for each student attending. At various times, the Bureau in Louisiana raised money for schools through a 5-percent tax levied against all people in the state, a 5-percent tax levied against all freedmen or against freemen using the schools, and from a tuition collected from the students. The first plan failed because whites opposed it; the other two plans failed because freedmen were unable to pay a tax or tuition. Many schools in Louisiana failed because teachers did not receive funds to meet monthly expenses.
The correspondence received and sent by the Office of the Superintendent of Education is generally addressed to or signed by the Superintendent, the Acting Assistant Adjutant General, or the secretary to the Superintendent. The correspondents represented in the series include the Assistant Commissioner; teachers, school officials, subassistant commissioners, and other subordinate officials; Army officers attached to military commands in the state; state and local political officials; and white citizens and freedmen of the state. Many items of correspondence are addressed to the Superintendent of Education as the "General Superintendent of Education," the more formal title of his office. The shorter title is used in these introductory remarks.
Several series of records dated before July 1, 1865, are of the Board of Education, the predecessor of the Office of the Superintendent of Education in Louisiana.
The volumes reproduced in this publication were arbitrarily assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. The AGO numbers are shown in parentheses only in the finding aid for this publication to aid in identifying the volumes on whose spines the numbers appear. The volume numbers without parentheses (throughout this publication) were assigned by the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Sometimes a volume was used to record more than one type of information; e/g/ the volume containing registers of weekly and monthly statistical reports of schools also contains the register of employees. The contents of these volumes have been filmed as if they were separate items.
Numbered blank pages have not been filmed. All indexes are filmed immediately preceding the records to which they pertain.
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
Extent:
197,148 Digital files
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Digital files
Date:
1865–1872
Summary:
This collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 203 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M1913. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Virginia field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, including previously unfilmed records of the Virginia staff offices of the quartermaster and disbursing officer, and the subordinate field offices. These records consist of bound volumes and unbound records, including letters and endorsements sent and received, orders and circulars, monthly reports, and other records relating to freedmen's complaints and claims.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1913.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self–sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non–Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.
For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. However, the records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN VIRGINIA
ORGANIZATION
In Virginia, the Bureau's operations began in June 1865 when Assistant Commissioner Orlando Brown established his headquarters in Richmond. Brown served until May 1866, when he was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, who remained in office until August 1866. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield served from August 1866 to March 1867, when Orlando Brown again assumed office and served as both Assistant Commissioner and superintendent of education until May 1869.
From June 1866 to March 1867, Assistant Commissioners Terry and Schofield also served as military commanders of the Department of Virginia and its successor, the Department of the Potomac. Although the two generals created and received records in both capacities, they maintained separate sets of records for this period. Records created by Terry and Schofield while serving in their military capacities are found among the Records of United States Army Commands, 1821–1920, RG 393.
Beginning in September 1865, the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia was responsible for Bureau operations in the Virginia counties of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Loudoun, and the Freedmen's Village near Arlington, VA. Bureau officers were assigned to supervise the activities of these districts. In August 1866, supervision of Loudoun County was transferred to the Assistant Commissioner for Virginia, and Alexandria and Fairfax Counties were similarly transferred in March 1867. Because officers in the above counties reported to the Assistant Commissioner of the District of Columbia, some records for Virginia are among his files.
From July 4, 1865 to April 14, 1867, the Virginia Bureau was divided into 10 districts, with an agent or superintendent in charge of each. Districts were further divided into subdistricts, each headed by an assistant superintendent. On April 15, 1867, the state was reorganized into 10 subdistricts, with a subassistant commissioner in charge of each. The subdistricts were divided further into divisions headed by assistant subassistant commissioners. Subdistrict headquarters were established at Alexandria, Fort Monroe, Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond, Winchester, and Wytheville. On January 1, 1869, the 10 subdistricts were reorganized into 8 educational subdistricts, with an assistant superintendent of schools in charge of each. The heads of the various subdivisions supervised all Bureau activities, including education, in their respective areas and reported on educational matters to both the superintendent of education and the Assistant Commissioner.
ACTIVITIES
The major activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia generally resembled those conducted in other states. The Bureau issued rations and provided medical relief to both freedmen and white refugees, supervised labor contracts between planters and freedmen, administered justice, and worked with benevolent societies in the establishment of schools.
The Freedmen's Bureau's efforts to provide relief to both blacks and whites in Virginia began almost as soon as Orlando Brown assumed office as Assistant Commissioner for the state in June 1865. From late summer to early fall 1865, the Bureau issued more than 350,000 rations at a cost of nearly $33,000. By mid October 1865, however, the number of rations issued had declined from a previous 275,000 to less than 236,000. During the same period, the number of people receiving rations decreased from 16,298 to 11,622. In September 1866, with Commissioner Howard's limitation of government assistance to those persons in orphanages and hospitals, and the plan to relinquish relief efforts for the destitute to state and local government officials, the Bureau in Virginia issued rations to fewer than 5,000 individuals statewide. Because the Virginia Bureau in 1866 and 1867 was committed to reducing expenditures and providing limited relief for those in dire need, by late September 1868 a large number of freedmen in the state still remained impoverished.1
The Virginia Bureau also opened several hospitals for the sick and infirm. At various times, hospitals were established at Eastville, Drummondtown, Norfolk, Hampton, Yorktown, Petersburg, Farmville, Lynchburg, Danville, Richmond, and City Point. Under the direction of surgeon J. J. De Lamaster, 13 contract and 2 noncontract physicians provided treatment for more than 650 patients during 1865 and 1866. Two dispensaries administered more than 18,000 prescriptions for medicine. At Howard Grove Hospital near Richmond, Virginia, the Bureau opened a ward for the insane and a home for the aged and infirm. In the northern part of the state, homes were located for 139 inmates housed at an orphan asylum. By late October 1866, over 30,000 freedmen received medical aid from the Bureau in Virginia. By October 1867, that number increased to 50,000.2
The Bureau worked to make freedmen self–sufficient and to incorporate them into the new free–labor system in Virginia. Thousands of freedmen who crossed Union lines during the Civil War continued to seek support from the Freedmen's Bureau at war's end. With great demand for labor in some areas (especially in large cities) and not in others, and the Federal Government's determination to reduce dependency on government aid, the Virginia Bureau provided transportation for persons who were unable to find work in areas where they resided to locations where work was readily available. Those able–bodied freedmen who refused or did not apply for transportation would no longer receive rations. Under labor agreements approved by the Virginia Bureau, freedmen received rations (but no clothing) and wages that averaged about $9 per month. In some districts freedmen worked for a share of the crop. Often, however, with limited employment (especially during the winter months), low wages, inadequate shares of crops, and the failure of local officials to provide for the destitute, freedmen were constantly dependent upon the Bureau for subsistence.3
Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen were major concerns of the Virginia Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states, including Virginia, enacted a series of laws commonly known as "Black Codes" that restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Freedmen were often given harsh sentences for petty crimes and in some instances were unable to get their cases heard or to testify in state courts. In September 1865, Assistant Commissioner Orlando Brown established Freedmen's Bureau courts to adjudicate cases involving freedmen where the penalties did not exceed a $100 fine or three months in prison. The three–member court was composed, for the most part, of a Bureau agent, a planters' representative, and an individual selected by freedmen. In February 1866, the Virginia legislature amended laws that adversely affected the rights of freedmen, and thus by early May 1866, Bureau courts were discontinued, and both civil and criminal cases were turned over to state authorities. However, because of the failure of many local court officials to administer equal justice (especially in areas outside of large cities and towns), the Bureau in Virginia found it necessary to re–establish Bureau courts in certain areas of the state. In late May 1867, Maj. Gen. Schofield, who served as both Commander of the 1st Military District and Assistant Commissioner for Virginia, issued orders appointing military commissioners to oversee the administration of justice in Bureau subdistricts throughout Virginia, giving them exclusive jurisdiction and power to decide whether a case would be tried by a civil court or a military commission. Despite the establishment of military commissioners however, protecting the rights and securing justice for freedpeople still remained an enormous problem for the Bureau as late as the fall of 1868.4
The Freedmen's Bureau's educational activities in Virginia began with Assistant Commissioner Brown's appointment of Prof. W. H. Woodbury as Virginia's superintendent of schools for freedmen on June 20, 1865. By November, he had been replaced by Ralza Morse Manly, the assistant superintendent of schools (later education), who served until August 15, 1870, when all Bureau educational activities ceased.
Within six months of assuming office, Manly had more than 136 teachers instructing some 8,000 pupils. The number of teachers soon increased to more than 200, with nearly 18,000 students under instruction. During the years 1866 and 1867, freedmen schools continued to improve and expand. By the fall of 1868, there were nearly 270 schools in operation, with more than 350 teachers providing instruction for some 20,000 pupils.5 Schools assisted or maintained by the Bureau in Virginia included day schools for children, night schools for adults, and Sabbath schools. Students received instruction in such subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. Many teachers were recruited from the North by freedmen's aid societies that included the American Missionary Association, the New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, the New England Freedmen's Aid Society, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the Friends Freedmen's Relief Association, and the American Freedmen's Union Commission. Teachers were also recruited from among the local white and black populations.
The Bureau's educational support for freedmen schools generally involved assistance in the establishment and maintenance of schools and the examination and appointment of teachers. Bureau funds were used to pay for construction and repair of school buildings, for rental of properties used for educational purposes, and for providing teachers with transportation. Teachers' salaries were usually paid by freedmen's aid societies; however, in some situations, salaries were partially subsidized by contributions from freedmen. Whenever possible, the Bureau solicited subscriptions from freedmen for the establishment of schools, and in some cases tuition was charged.
ENDNOTES
1 Mary J. Farmer, "Because They Are Women: Gender and the Virginia Freedmen's Bureau's War on Dependency," in The Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction: Reconsiderations, eds. Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller, (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999), 165 – 169; Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, Virginia, October 8, 1867 [pp. 4 – 7], and October 19, 1868 [pp. 12 – 14], Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group (RG) 105, National Archives Building (NAB), Washington, DC.
2 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Serial Vol. 1276, 163 – 164; For further details on the medical activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia, see Annual Reports of J. J. De Lamater, Surgeon and Chief, Virginia, October 25, 1866 [pp. 1 – 34], and October 1, 1867 [pp. 1 – 23], Annual Reports, Virginia, RG 105, NAB.
3 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 161 – 162; see also Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [pp. 4 – 8], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 12 – 14].
4 George R. Bentley, A History of the Freedmen's Bureau (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944), 152 – 153; Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 165 – 167; Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [p. 3], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 2 – 8].
5 Senate Ex. Doc. 6, Serial Vol. 1276, 164 – 165; Annual Reports, Virginia, October 8, 1867, [pp. 9 – 14], and October 19, 1868, [pp. 16 – 18].
Freedmen's Bureau Personnel in Virginia:
This list provides the names and dates of service of known Freedmen's Bureau personnel at selected subordinate field offices for Virginia. Additional information regarding persons assigned to various field offices might be found among the Bureau's Washington headquarters station books and rosters of military officers and civilians on duty in the states and in other appointment–related records.
ALEXANDRIA
Oct. 1863–June 1865 -- Superintendent of Contrabands A. Gladwin
July–Nov. 1865 -- Superintendent James Ferree (5th District)
Nov. 1865–Jan. 1866 -- Superintendent Henry Alvord
Jan. 1866–Mar. 1867 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner S. R. Lee
Mar. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Superintendent and Subassistant Commissioner S. R. Lee (10th Subdistrict)
Jan.–Apr. 1869 -- Superintendent S. R. Lee (6th Educational Subdistrict of VA)
AMELIA COURTHOUSE
Oct. 1865–Aug. 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent W. F. White
Aug. 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Assistant Superintendent James Drysdale
Jan. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Acting Subassistant Commissioner J. B. Clinton
APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE
1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Louis Neswick
ASHLAND
1865–66 -- Ed Murphy
1867–68 -- Ira Ayers
BOWLING GREEN (Caroline County)
Jan. 1866–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Superintendent John Dwyer
Nov.–Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. B. Pease
Mar. 1866–July 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. H. Hall (3rd Division, 9th District)
July–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. Lyreel
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Watkins James
WYTHEVILLE
Oct. 1865–June 1866 -- Superintendent B. C. Carter (8th District)
June–Dec. 1866 -- Superintendent George P. Sherwood (8th District)
Dec. 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Superintendent J. H. Remington (8th District)
Mar.–Aug. 1867 -- Superintendent William P. Austin (8th District)
Mar.–Aug. 1867 -- Superintendent H. G. Thomas (8th District)
Jan.–Mar. 1869 -- Assistant Superintendent of Schools H. G. Thomas (at Salem)
YORKTOWN
Jan. 1866–May 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner F. A. Massey (3rd Division, 5th District)
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Henry K. Ayers (3rd Division, 5th District)
Related Archival Materials note:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Field Offices for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1863–1872
Extent:
111 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1863–1872
Summary:
The collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 111 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M1905. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the staff officers of the Assistant Commissioner and the subordinate field offices of the Louisiana headquarters of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
Lands, 1863–1872. These records consist of bound volumes and unbound records containing materials that include letters sent and received, monthly reports, registers of complaints, labor contracts, and other records relating to freedmen's claims and bounty payments.
Records Description:
These records consist of volumes and unbound records. The volumes reproduced in this microfilm publication were originally arranged by type of record and thereunder by volume number. All volumes were assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. In this microfilm publication, AGO numbers are shown in parentheses to aid in identifying the volumes. The National Archives assigned the volume numbers that are not in parentheses. No numbers were assigned to series consisting of single volumes. In some volumes, particularly in indexes and alphabetical headings of registers, there are blank numbered pages that have not been filmed.
The volumes consist of letters and endorsements sent and received, press copies of letters sent, registers of letters received, letters and orders received, registers of freedmen court cases, special orders and circulars issued, registers of claimants, registers of complaints, marriage certificates, and monthly reports forwarded to the Assistant Commissioner. The unbound documents consist of letters and orders received, unregistered letters and narrative reports received, special orders and circulars issued, and general orders and circulars received. The unbound records also contain monthly reports, labor contracts, marriage certificates, and records relating to claims.
Some of the volumes contain more than one type of record, reflecting a common recording practice of clerks and staff officers of that period. On Roll 67, for example, the volume of applications for laborers for Bragg Home Colony also contains a register of complaints. Some other examples of additional series within volumes can be found in records on Rolls 72, 78, and others. Researchers should read carefully the records descriptions and arrangements in the table of contents to make full use of these documents.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1905.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self–sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents, or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non-Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, it was often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress, approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.
For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. The records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN LOUISIANA
ORGANIZATION
On June 13, 1865, Commissioner Oliver Otis Howard appointed Chaplain Thomas W. Conway as the Assistant Commissioner for Louisiana. At the time of his appointment, Conway headed the military's Louisiana Bureau of Free Labor, which managed the affairs of freedmen employed on "Abandoned" plantations. Conway transferred the Bureau of Free Labor to the newly established Freedmen's Bureau Louisiana headquarters at New Orleans. The parishes of Madison, Carroll, Concordia, and Tenasas in northeastern Louisiana were reassigned in January 1866 from the jurisdiction of the Assistant Commissioner for Mississippi to that of the Assistant Commissioner for Louisiana. The other Assistant Commissioners or Acting Assistant Commissioners in Louisiana and their terms of office were Gen. James S. Fullerton, October 4 – 18, 1865; Gen. Absalom Baird, October 19, 1865–September 1866; Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, October 5–November 27, 1866; Gen. Joseph A. Mower, November 28, 1866–December 4, 1867; Lt. Col. William H. Wood, December 5, 1867–January 2, 1868; Gen. R. C. Buchanan, January 3–August 24, 1868; and Gen. Edward Hatch, August 25, 1868–January 1, 1869.
When Conway took over as Assistant Commissioner, the state was divided into districts that were composed of one to three parishes and commanded by either an agent or superintendent. In April 1867, the state was reorganized into seven subdistricts headed by subassistant commissioners. Subassistant commissioners were required to file monthly inspection reports of their respective jurisdictions with the Assistant Commissioner. Agents or assistant subassistant commissioners, who were responsible for one to two parishes, received their instructions from and reported to subassistant commissioners. The major subordinate field offices for the Bureau in Louisiana included those with headquarters at Baton Rouge, Franklin, Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, Shreveport, and Vidalia. For a list of known Louisiana subordinate field office personnel and their dates of service, see the appendix.
ACTIVITIES
The major activities of the Freedmen's Bureau field office in Louisiana generally resembled those conducted in other states. The Bureau provided various forms of relief to both freedmen and white refugees, supervised labor contracts, assisted freedmen in the establishment of schools, administered justice, helped freedmen locate land, and assisted blacks with military claims for back pay, bounty payments, and pensions.
Between June and September 1865, the Bureau in Louisiana issued some 455,290 rations to destitute freedmen and 157,691 to white refugees. With no appropriated funds from Congress, the Bureau relied on several sources to carry out these activities: income from confiscated property, requisitioned supplies from the army, aid from benevolent societies, and a three–dollar tax on black adult laborers. Despite the Bureau's efforts, however, tens of thousands of freedmen and refugees remained in dire straits throughout the state. The lack of available funds, continuous flooding, crop failures, and disease severely hampered the Bureau's relief programs. On March 30, 1867, Congress appropriated monies for a "Special Relief Fund" (15 Stat. 28). The fund authorized the Secretary of War, through the Freedmen's Bureau, to issue provisions and rations to destitute persons in Southern states, including Louisiana.
In response to the act, Commissioner Howard issued a circular on April 3, 1867 (Circular Number 11), that set aside $500,000 for the purpose.1 The agency maintained homes for refugees and orphans. Hundreds of refugees were housed in two hotels in New Orleans (the Commercial and the Western Verandah) and later the Marine Hospital. While most of the residents were from Louisiana, some were from Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Beginning in 1865, the Bureau provided assistance to several privately run orphan asylums in New Orleans and other areas of the state until its work for orphans was discontinued in September 1865. The Bureau also provided medical aid to freedmen and white refugees. In 1866, to help combat such diseases as cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox, seven doctors, on average, served under the Bureau in Louisiana: five at the New Orleans hospital and one at both the Shreveport hospital and the Rost Home Colony. The Bureau also maintained numerous dispensaries throughout the state. In spite of the closure of the Rost Home Colony hospital and most of the Bureau's dispensaries by the end of 1867, the agency in 1868 treated more than 8,500 freedmen for various infectious diseases. At the Rost Home Colony—one of the most successful of the four "Home Colonies" established in Louisiana—Bureau officials also issued rations and clothing, established a school, provided employment, and compiled a variety of personal data about individuals who arrived and departed from the Colony. Both the New Orleans and the Shreveport hospitals maintained registers of patients and the sick and wounded.2
The regulation of written labor agreements between planters and freedmen was a major concern of the Freedmen's Bureau. In a circular issued on December 4, 1865 (Circular Number 29), Bureau officials in Louisiana outlined the rules governing the free labor system in the state. Freedmen could choose their employers, and all contracts were to be approved by a Bureau agent. Wages were not set, but the circular declared that it was the freedmen's "Duty" to "obtain the best terms they can for their labor." Freedmen were required to work 26 days per month, consisting of 10–hour days in the summer and 9–hour days in the winter. Any work time exceeding 6 hours beyond the normal workday would constitute an additional day's work. In addition to wages, freedmen were also entitled to receive rations, clothing, "Comfortable" living quarters, and medical attention, and each family was to receive a half–acre plot to maintain a garden. Five percent of the freedman's monthly wages was to be retained by the employer for the purpose of sustaining schools for the freedman's children. In cases where freedmen desired to work for a share of the crop, employers were required to have sufficient amounts of provisions available for freedmen and their families each month. Also, employers who entered into share agreements were obligated to pay Bureau agents 1/20 of the amount of the freedmen's share of the crop each month for the benefit of freedmen schools.3
In the two years following the April 1862 occupation of New Orleans by Union troops, various civilian and military organizations established schools to educate freedmen in Louisiana. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's order of March 22, 1864 (Department of the Gulf General Order 38), established a board of education to govern the organization of freedmen's schools. B. Rush Plumly was appointed head of the board, and Lt. Edwin M. Wheelock became supervisor. Schools under the board's jurisdiction were supported mainly by a tax on citizens recently disloyal to the Union. On June 29, 1865, Assistant Commissioner Conway took charge of the schools, and on July 5, 1865, replaced Plumly and Wheelock with Capt. H. R. Pease as superintendent of education. Pease's successors included Bvt. Maj. A. G. Studer, Lt. F. R. Chase, J. M. Lee, L. O. Parker, H. H. Pierce, and E. W. Mason.
Pease divided the state into seven school districts, placing military and civilian personnel in charge. Under these officers were school directors responsible for each parish and "Canvassers" who collected the school tax for each district. At the time of his arrival, there were some 126 freedmen schools, with 230 teachers and approximately 19,000 students. However, with limited funds and intense opposition to the school tax, Circular Number 34, dated December 27, 1865, directed that all schools be "suspended until such time as it may be found practicable to re-establish them on a permanent and self–supporting basis."4
In February 1866, then–Assistant Commissioner Baird sought to make schools self–supporting through a tuition plan. Despite Baird's new plan and congressional appropriations of 1866 and 1867 for freedmen education in the South, the Freedmen's Bureau's educational programs in Louisiana continued to face financial difficulties. In June 1868, Congress authorized the Bureau to sell school buildings to private groups that were willing to maintain freedmen schools, and the Bureau entered into cooperative agreements with such groups as the American Missionary Society, the Methodist Freedmen's Aid Society, and the Free Mission Baptists. Under the agreements, the Bureau provided monies for construction of the school buildings, and the religious organizations maintained the schools. In 1870, the cooperation between the Bureau and religious groups led to significant progress in the establishment of numerous freedmen schools in Louisiana. Despite their efforts however, freedmen schools continued to suffer from the effects of limited resources, lack of competent teachers, and a segregated school system.5
Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen was of paramount concern to the Freedmen's Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states enacted a series of laws, commonly known as "Black Codes," that restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Freedmen were often given harsh sentences for petty crimes, and in some instances were unable to get their cases heard in state courts. Assistant Commissioners were directed to "adjudicate, either themselves or through officers of their appointment, all difficulties arising between Negroes themselves, or between Negroes and whites or Indians."6 Assistant Commissioner Conway issued Circular Number 15 (September 15, 1865), authorizing his subordinates to establish freedmen courts in cases where freedmen were not receiving just treatment. Conway's successors—Fullerton, Baird, and Sheridan—believed that civil officers in most parishes administered justice impartially in freedmen cases, and so abolished the special tribunals as unnecessary. Nevertheless, Bureau officers were still required to represent freedmen in court cases and refer the most extreme cases of injustice to United States courts. In the latter part of 1866, fearing that freedmen's rights were not being adequately protected, Assistant Commissioner Joseph Mower re–instituted some Bureau judicial functions that had been previously suspended by his predecessors. William H. Wood, who succeeded Mower, told Bureau agents during his tenure that only in cases where the evidence clearly showed the civil court's failure to administer justice, were they to become involved. Wood's replacement, Gen. Robert C. Buchanan, like Fullerton, Baird, and Sheridan, continued the policy of leaving matters of justice to civil authorities. By the time Gen. Edward Hatch assumed office as Assistant Commissioner in 1868, Louisiana had restored its constitutional relations with the Federal Government, and matters concerning justice were returned to the state.7
The Southern Homestead Act (14 Stat. 66), approved by Congress on June 21, 1866, made available for public settlement 46 million acres of public lands in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Six million acres of this Federal land was located in Louisiana. The act specifically prohibited discrimination against applicants due to race, and thus offered Louisiana freedmen and others an opportunity to become landowners. Only persons who headed households or were former United States soldiers were eligible to apply. A five–dollar application fee was required of all applicants, which allowed them to settle on an 80–acre tract and gain permanent possession after five years of cultivation. Generally, the Freedmen's Bureau, through "Locating Agents," assisted interested freedmen in finding plots, and provided them with one-month subsistence, free transportation to their prospective tracts of land, and seeds for initial planting. By January 1867, J. J. Saville, as locating agent, found homesteads for 87 freedmen, 73 whites, and 14 soldiers. However, because the New Orleans land office was closed, only 7 were able to file applications. While limited resources and the lack of suitable lands for settlement hindered freedmen in their effort to acquire land, freedmen also faced intense opposition from whites who opposed black land ownership. Freedmen were thus encouraged by Bureau officials in Louisiana to settle on land in large numbers in order to protect themselves from intense opposition by whites.8
An act of Congress on June 14, 1864, authorized the payment of bounties, not to exceed $100, to black soldiers who had entered the military after June 15, 1864, and who were free on April 19, 1861 (14 Stat. 126). Amendments in 1866 dropped the requirement of freedom at enlistment and offered additional bounties of $100 for those blacks who had signed on for three years, and $50 for individuals who enlisted for two years. To assist black soldiers and their heirs in filing bounty and other military claims against the Federal Government, a claims agency was initially established in the United States Sanitary Commission. On July 14, 1865, Commissioner Howard authorized Freedmen's Bureau officials to act as agents of the Commission and to assist it in filing for black military claims. However, freedmen often rejected the free services of the agency and paid fees to private claims agents, believing that they would receive their money quicker. In 1867, concerned about abuse and fraud in the settlement of black military claims, Congress passed a law making the Freedmen's Bureau the sole agent for payment of claims of black veterans (15 Stat. 26). From October 31, 1866, through September 30, 1867, the Bureau in Louisiana settled claims amounting to just $1,489.73. However, one year later, 240 veterans' claims amounting to $52,058 were settled, with 484 remaining to be resolved.9
ENDNOTES
1 Howard A. White, The Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970), 64 – 76.
2 Ibid., 76 – 85; For a discussion of the establishment and activities at Rost Home Colony, see Michael F. Knight, "The Rost Home Colony: St. Charles Parish, Louisiana," Prologue 33, No. 1 (Fall 2001): 214 – 220; Records relating to the Freedmen's hospital at New Orleans have been reproduced on Records of the New Orleans Field Offices, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1483, Rolls 1 – 7); For Shreveport hospital records, see Roll 101 in this publication.
3 House Ex. Doc. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. Serial Vol. 1256, pp. 30 – 33.
4 White, The Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana, pp. 166 – 175; See also House Ex. Doc. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., Serial Vol. 1256, pp. 35 – 36.
5 White, The Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana, 176 – 200.
6 House Ex. Doc. 11, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., Serial Vol. 1255, pp. 45 – 46.
7 White, The Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana, 134 – 165.
8 Ibid., 59 – 63.
9 Howard A. White, The Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana, pp. 160 – 162; See also, Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, Louisiana, October 5, 1868 [pp. 19 – 20], Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Record Group 105, National Archives Building, Washington, DC.
Freedmen's Bureau Personnel in Louisiana:
This list provides the names and dates of service of known Freedmen's Bureau personnel at the Plantation Department and selected subordinate field offices in Louisiana. Where noted, officers served at two locations. Additional information regarding persons assigned to various field offices might be found among the Bureau's Washington headquarters station books and rosters of military officers and civilians on duty in the states and other appointment–related records.
PLANTATION DEPARTMENT
July 1865–May 1866 -- Superintendent Capt. Frank Bagley
May–Sept. 1866 -- Superintendent C. R. Stickney
Oct. 1866–June 1867 -- Assistant Quartermaster W. B. Armstrong
ABBEVILLE
Apr. 1867–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner A. N. Murtagh
ALEXANDRIA
June 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Assistant Superintendent S. G. Williams
May–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner S. G. Williams
Nov. 1867–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George Buttrick
June–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner H. P. Hathaway
ALGIERS
May 1865–Apr. 1866 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen William E. Dougherty
May 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent Richard Folles
Apr. 1867–Oct. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Richard Folles
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Isaac Stathem
AMITE
Sept.–Dec. 1865 -- Assistant Superintendent H. H. Rouse
Dec. 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent Edward Ehrlich
Feb.–Apr. 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent W. K. Tillotson
Apr.–Nov. 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent James Hough
Nov. 1866–May 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner James Hough
May–Nov. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George F. Austin
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Joseph D. Buckley
BATON ROUGE
May–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 2nd Subdistrict George F. Schager
July 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 2nd Subdistrict William H. Webster
Jan.–June 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 2nd Subdistrict Frank D. Garretty
July–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 2nd Subdistrict Charles Hill
Feb.–Apr. 1866 -- Agent M. J. Sheridan
July 1866 -- Agent E. C. Phetteplace
Oct. 1866 -- Agent Abner Doane
Jan.–May 1867 -- Agent William H. Webster
July 1867-Jan.1869 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William H. Webster
Feb.–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George Inness
June–July 1968 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Charles Hill
Dec. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward S. Wilson
Jan.–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner E. H. Hosner
LAKE PROVIDENCE
Jan. 1866–May 1867 -- Agent George W. Rollins
May–Oct. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George W. Rollins
Oct. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Thomas H. Hannon
Jan.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner E. H. Masters
MADISONVILLE
Oct. 1866 -- Agent A. J. Rose
Nov. 1866–May 1867 -- Agent W. H. R. Hangen
May 1867–Sept. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. H. R. Hangen
Sept.–Nov. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. H. R. Hangen (also Covington)
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Thomas H. Jenks, Jr. (also Covington)
MANSFIELD
Mar. 1867–May 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. J. Walsh
May–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Michael Cary
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward Henderson
MARKSVILLE
Mar–Aug. 1866 -- Agent Amos S. Collins (also Evergreen)
Aug. 1866–May 1867 -- Agent Amos S. Collins (also Marksville)
May 1867–May 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Amos S. Collins
May–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Cyrus H. Ross
MILLIKEN BEND
May 1864 -- Assistant Provost Marshal D. McCall
Nov.–Dec. 1864 -- Provost Marshal Benjamin F. Cheney
May–Sept. 1867 -- Assistant Subasistant Commissioner C. P. Varney
Sept.–Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subasistant Commissioner T. F. Cummins
Jan.–Feb. 1868 -- Assistant Subasistant Commissioner A. J. Baby
Feb.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subasistant Commissioner John S. Shaw
MONROE
Mar. 1867–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of 5th Subdistrict Samuel C. Gold
Mar. 1867–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of 5th Subdistrict W. W. Webb
Aug.–Nov. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of 5th Subdistrict John H. Bowen
Sept.–Oct 1865 -- Assistant Superintendent Frank Morey
Feb.–Mar. 1866 -- Agent J. H. Wisner
Apr. 1866 -- Agent H. A. Pease
May 1866–Jan. 1867 -- Agent Joseph Burns
Feb.–June 1867 -- Agent Frank Morey
June–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Charles C. Swenson
Nov. 1867–Apr. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. R. Wheyland
Apr.–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward K. Russ
Aug.–Oct. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward K. Russ (also Trenton)
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner H. L. Irwin (also Trenton)
MONTGOMERY
June 1867–Sept. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner D. W. White
NAPOLEONVILLE
May–Nov. 1865 -- Provost Marshal J. W. Greene
Dec. 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Agent Francis S. Dodge
Feb. 1866–May 1867 -- Agent A. C. Ellis
May–Oct. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner O. H. Hempstead, Jr.
Nov. 1867–May 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner John W. Sword
May–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Julius Lovell
NATCHITOCHES
June 1867–May 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 4th Subdistrict James Cromie
May–July 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 4th Subdistrict Isaac N. Walter
July 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 4th Subdistrict N. B. McLaughlin
July–Nov. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 4th Subdistrict G. A. Hewlett
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 4th Subdistrict Theodore W. De Klyne
Feb.–Apr. 1866 -- Agent W. H. Henderson
May 1866–May 1867 -- Agent James Comie
May 1867–Sept. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Charles Miller
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner E. H. Hosner
NEW IBERIA
Dec. 1865–Jan. 1866 -- Agent Edmund C. Burt (also St. Martinsville)
Jan. 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent William H. Cornelius (also St. Martinsville)
Apr.–July 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William H. Cornelius (also St. Martinsville)
Aug. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner I. W. Keller (and A. A. C. Leblanc, Clerk, St. Martinsville)
Sept.–Oct. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner L. Jolissaint
Nov. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner John T. White
NEW ORLEANS
May 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner for Orleans Parish Left Bank A. N. Murtagh
June–Aug. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner for Orleans Parish Left Bank L. Jolissaint
Sept. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner for Orleans Parish Left Bank W. H. Cornelius
Oct. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner for Orleans Parish Left Bank John T. White
Nov. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner for Orleans Parish Left Bank L. Jolissaint
Apr.–Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Comissioner for St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parishes Ira D. M. McClary (also Kenilworth Plantation)
Jan. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Comissioner for St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parishes Oscare A. Rice (also Chofield Plantation)
Jan.–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Comissioner for St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parishes P. J. Smalley (also Chofield Plantation and P. O. Lock Box 841)
June–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Comissioner for St. Bernard and Plaquemine Parishes H. M. Whittmore (also Merritts Plantation)
NEW ROADS
Mar. 1866 -- Agent Thomas H. Hopwood (see Labatuts Landing)
Apr.–July 1866 -- Agent Thomas H. Hopwood
July 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent H. F. Wallace
Apr.–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner H. F. Wallace
Nov. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner M. Basso (also Point Coupee)
Feb.–Apr. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner C. J. Lorigan (also Waterloo)
Apr.–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner C. J. Lorigan (also New Roads and Waterloo)
July–Oct. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Victor Benthien
PLAQUEMINE
Jan. 1865 -- Provost Marshal M. Masicot
Feb.–Oct. 1865 -- Provost Marshal Nelson Kenyon
Oct. 1865 -- Provost Marshal James M. Eddy
Dec. 1865 -- Agent A. R. Houston
Feb.–Apr. 1866 -- Agent J. C. Stimmell
May 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent F. A. Osbourn
Apr.–Dec. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner F. A. Osbourn
Jan.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner E. Charles Merrill
ST. JOSEPH
Aug.–Oct. 1865 -- Agent David L. Jones
Nov. 1865 -- Agent A. Roberts
Nov.–Dec. 1865 -- Agent A. Hemingway
Jan.–Feb. 1866 -- Agent R. D. Mitchell
Feb. 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent J. H. Hastings
Apr.–May 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. H. Hastings
May 1867–Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward Henderson
SHREVEPORT
May 1867–July 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 7th Subdistrict Martin Flood
Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 7th Subdistrict Frank D. Garretty
Oct.–Dec. 1865 -- Assistant Superintendent D. H. Reese
Dec. 1865–Apr. 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent L. Horrigan
May–June 1866 -- Agent E. E. Williams
June 1866 -- Assistant Superintendent William P. Hagardon
June 1866–May 1867 -- Assistant Superintendent Martin Flood
May 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Thomas F. Monroe
Sept. 1869–Sept. 1870 -- Superintendent of Education James McCleery
SPARTA
Dec. 1866–Feb. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner E. W. Dewees
Feb.–June 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George Schayer
June–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward Newell Bean
THIBODEAUX
Aug. 1866 -- Agent C. P. M. Taggart
Feb.–Mar. 1867 -- Agent S. A. Kohly
Mar.–Apr. 1867 -- Agent J. D. Rich
May–June 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. D. Rich
June–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. A. A. Robinson
Nov. 1867–Apr. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Francis Sternberg
Apr.–Sept. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Nelson Bronson
Sept.–Oct. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner I. H. Van Antwerp
Oct.–Nov. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William S. MacKenzie
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner William Hollenback
TRINITY
May 1867–July 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner M. Johnson Lemmon (also Prairie Landing)
Aug. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. H. H. Camp (also Mossy Farm Plantation)
Sept.–Nov. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner J. H. H. Camp (also Trinity)
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Van R. K. Hilliard
VERMILLIONVILLE
Jan. 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Agent S. W. Purchase
May 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner S. W. Purchase
May 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Edward Lindemann
Jan.–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Oscar A. Rice
VERNON
May 1867–Sept. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner W. Bishop
VIDALIA
May–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 6th Subdistrict J. H. Hastings (also St. Joseph)
June–Oct. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 6th Subdistrict J. H. Hastings (also Vidalia)
Nov. 1867–July 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 6th Subdistrict George W. Rollins
July–Aug 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 6th Subdistrict Frank D. Garretty
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner of the 6th Subdistrict George W. Rollins
Aug.–Sept. 1865 -- Agent J. H. West
Feb. 1868–Apr. 1867 -- Agent B. B. Brown
Apr.–June 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner B. B. Brown
June–Oct. 1867 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner George H. Dunford
Sept. 1867–July 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Christian Rush
July–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subassistant Commissioner Alexander Hamilton
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Records of the Field Offices for the State of Mississippi, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
Extent:
65 Reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Reels
Date:
1865–1872
Summary:
The collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 65 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M1907. These digital surrogates reproduced the records of the Mississippi headquarters for the Assistant Commissioner and his staff officers and the subordinate field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872. The files contain some pre–Bureau record series, dated 1863–1864, that were created by military commanders and U. S. Treasury agents who dealt with refugees and freedmen during the Civil War. These records consist of bound volumes and unbound records, containing materials that include letters sent and received, monthly reports, registers of complaints, and other records relating to freedmen's claims and bounty payments.
Records Description:
These records consist of volumes and unbound records. The volumes reproduced in this publication were originally arranged by the Freedmen's Bureau by type of record and thereunder by volume number. No numbers were assigned to series consisting of single volumes. Years later, all volumes were assigned numbers by the Adjutant General's Office (AGO) of the War Department after the records came into its custody. In this publication, AGO numbers are shown in parentheses to aid in identifying the volumes. The National Archives assigned the volume numbers that are not in parentheses. In some volumes, particularly in indexes and alphabetical headings of registers, there are blank numbered pages that have not been filmed.
The volumes consist of letters and endorsements sent and received, press copies of letters sent, registers of letters received, letters and orders received, registers of freedmen issued rations, special orders and circulars issued, registers of bounty claimants, and monthly reports forwarded to the Assistant Commissioner. The unbound documents consist of letters and orders received, unregistered letters and narrative reports received, special orders and circulars issued, and general orders and circulars received. The unbound records also contain monthly reports; amnesty oaths; applications of freedmen for rations; and records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.
A few series were created in 1863–1864, prior to formation of the Bureau, by Union military commanders and U. S. Treasury agents, and included in the Bureau records. Some of the volumes contain more than one type of record, reflecting a common recording practice of clerks and staff officers in that period. In Series 2.2, for example, the Registers of Letters Received also contain a register of criminal cases maintained by the judge advocate of the district of Vicksburg. Researchers should read carefully the records descriptions and arrangements in the finding aid to make full use of these records.
Historical Note:
[The following is reproduced from the original NARA descriptive pamphlet for M1907.]
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. 507). The life of the Bureau was extended twice by acts of July 16, 1866 (14 Stat. 173), and July 6, 1868 (15 Stat. 83). The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to refugees and freedmen, and of lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Bureau, and Howard served in that position until June 30, 1872, when activities of the Bureau were terminated in accordance with an act of June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366). While a major part of the Bureau's early activities involved the supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was to provide relief and help freedmen become self–sufficient. Bureau officials issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps, and supervised labor contracts. In addition, the Bureau managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, helped freedmen in legalizing marriages entered into during slavery, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite with their family or relocate to other parts of the country. The Bureau also helped black soldiers, sailors, and their heirs collect bounty claims, pensions, and back pay.
The act of March 3, 1865, authorized the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to aid the Commissioner in supervising the work of the Bureau in the former Confederate states, the border states, and the District of Columbia. While the work performed by Assistant Commissioners in each state was similar, the organizational structure of staff officers varied from state to state. At various times, the staff could consist of a superintendent of education, an assistant adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, a disbursing officer, a chief medical officer, a chief quartermaster, and a commissary of subsistence. Subordinate to these officers were the assistant superintendents, or subassistant commissioners as they later became known, who commanded the subdistricts.
The Assistant Commissioner corresponded extensively with both his superior in the Washington Bureau headquarters and his subordinate officers in the subdistricts. Based upon reports submitted to him by the subassistant commissioners and other subordinate staff officers, he prepared reports that he sent to the Commissioner concerning Bureau activities in areas under his jurisdiction. The Assistant Commissioner also received letters from freedmen, local white citizens, state officials, and other non–Bureau personnel. These letters varied in nature from complaints to applications for jobs in the Bureau. Because the assistant adjutant general handled much of the mail for the Assistant Commissioner's office, letters were often addressed to him instead of to the Assistant Commissioner.
In a circular issued by Commissioner Howard in July 1865, the Assistant Commissioners were instructed to designate one officer in each state to serve as "General Superintendents of Schools." These officials were to "take cognizance of all that is being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, correspond with the benevolent agencies which are supplying his field, and aid the Assistant Commissioner in making his required reports." In October 1865, a degree of centralized control was established over Bureau educational activities in the states when Rev. John W. Alvord was appointed Inspector of Finances and Schools. In January 1867, Alvord was divested of his financial responsibilities, and he was appointed General Superintendent of Education.
An act of Congress, approved July 25, 1868 (15 Stat. 193), ordered that the Commissioner of the Bureau "shall, on the first day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted and its operation shall be discontinued." Consequently, in early 1869, with the exception of the superintendents of education and the claims agents, the Assistant Commissioners and their subordinate officers were withdrawn from the states.
For the next year and a half the Bureau continued to pursue its education work and to process claims. In the summer of 1870, the superintendents of education were withdrawn from the states, and the headquarters staff was greatly reduced. From that time until the Bureau was abolished by an act of Congress approved June 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 366), effective June 30, 1872, the Bureau's functions related almost exclusively to the disposition of claims. The Bureau's records and remaining functions were then transferred to the Freedmen's Branch in the office of the Adjutant General. The records of this branch are among the Bureau's files.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU IN MISSISSIPPI
ORGANIZATION
The first Assistant Commissioner of Mississippi was Col. Samuel Thomas, who established his headquarters at Vicksburg in June 1865. Before his appointment to the Freedmen's Bureau, Colonel Thomas served in Mississippi within Chaplain John Eaton's Freedmen's Department of the Department of Tennessee. The functions and activities of the Freedmen's Department in Mississippi were similar to those of the later Bureau. Although the size and organization of the Mississippi office varied from time to time, the Assistant Commissioner's staff usually included an acting adjutant general, an assistant inspector general, and a surgeon in chief, a superintendent of education, a disbursing officer, and a chief commissary of subsistence.
At the start of operations in Mississippi, officers subordinate to the Assistant Commissioner were organized in a hierarchical manner. The state of Mississippi and the parishes of Madison, Carroll, Concordia, and Tenas in northeastern Louisiana were divided into the Western, Southern, and Northern Districts, with an acting assistant commissioner in charge of each district. Subassistant commissioners in charge of subdistricts, which usually encompassed several counties, reported directly to the acting assistant commissioners, who, in turn, reported to the Assistant Commissioner. In January 1866, the Louisiana parishes were placed within the jurisdiction of the Assistant Commissioner for Louisiana. In March 1866, the three districts were discontinued; thereafter, the subassistant commissioners or the civilian agents in charge of subdistricts reported directly to the Assistant Commissioner.
Colonel Thomas was succeeded by three other officers who acted as both Assistant Commissioners and military commanders in Mississippi. In April 1866, Gen. Thomas J. Wood was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Mississippi; he was succeeded in January 1867 by Gen. Alvan C. Gillem. In March 1869, Gen. Adelbert Ames was appointed Assistant Commissioner; he established his headquarters at Jackson and supervised the closing of the office of the Assistant Commissioner. Gen. Ames's appointment was revoked on April 30, 1869. The major subordinate field offices for the Bureau at Mississippi included those with headquarters at Jackson, Lauderdale, Natchez, and Vicksburg. For a list of known Mississippi subordinate field office personnel and their dates of service, see the Appendix.
ACTIVITIES
The major activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in Mississippi generally resembled those conducted in other states. The Bureau issued rations to both freedmen and white refugees, supervised labor contracts between planters and freedmen, administered justice, worked with benevolent societies in the establishment of schools, provided assistance in legalizing freedmen marriages, and assisted, to a limited extent, in locating land for freedmen.
The Freedmen's Bureau sought to prevent widespread starvation and destitution in Mississippi by issuing more than 180,000 rations to both whites and blacks in 1865, and 170,000 rations to blacks and white refugees in 1866. Also in 1866, Commissioner Howard ordered an end to rations except for freedmen in Bureau hospitals and orphanages. By December 1868, the Bureau's relief efforts in Mississippi ceased.1
The regulation of written labor agreements between planters and freedmen was a major concern of the Freedmen's Bureau in Mississippi. In General Orders Number 5 (July 29, 1865), Assistant Commissioner Thomas outlined the rules governing the free labor system in the state. He specified that all contracts between freedmen and planters must be in writing and approved by the Bureau. Contracts were not to exceed one year, and any contracts involving wages must allow for food, clothing, and medical attention. The Bureau settled disputes. Between 1865 and 1866, numerous freedmen complained of inadequate compensation for their labor. Freedmen who worked for "Shares" (for a portion of the crop) found themselves in debt to planters at the end of the season, and thus forced to contract for the next year to pay their obligations. Blacks who worked for wages were frequently cheated of their pay and in some instances, like those who worked for shares, were "Driven Off" once the crops were harvested. Assistant Commissioner T. J. Wood, who replaced Thomas in 1867, instituted a plan by which freedmen contracted with planters for a portion of the crop. Freedmen were to receive one–third of the crop, and planters were to supply land, stock, tools and food. Clothing, medicines, and the cost of rations provided to children too young to work would be taken from the freedmen's share of the crop at the end of the year. By 1868, a modified version of the "Share System" became the most prevalent kind of labor agreement in Mississippi. Freedmen who worked land provided by the planters paid a stipulated rent or a certain amount of cotton or corn for the use of the land. By and large, this labor arrangement allowed freedmen to rely less on credit from planters and more on their own resources for supplies.2
Safeguarding rights and securing justice for freedmen was also of great concern to the Bureau. Following the Civil War, several Southern states, including Mississippi, enacted a series of laws commonly known as "Black Codes," which restricted the rights and legal status of freedmen. Under Mississippi law, for example, blacks could not rent or lease land outside cities and towns, thus restricting their ability to become independent farmers. Freedmen who were not lawfully employed by the second Monday of each January were considered vagrants, and as such, were subject to fines and imprisonment. Freedmen were prohibited from owning firearms without a license, and black children who were deemed orphans could be bound out as apprentices without their parents' permission. Assistant Commissioner Thomas issued General Orders Number 8 (September 20, 1865), which offered Mississippi judicial officials the opportunity to try freedmen cases in local courts (without interference from the Bureau) if they would afford blacks the same "Rights and Privileges" as whites. In October 1865, after Mississippi officials agreed to accept his offer, Thomas ordered that all cases relating to freedmen were to be handled by Mississippi judges and magistrates. However, it was not until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that the Freedmen's Bureau in Mississippi was able to achieve some degree of equal justice for freedmen.3
From July 1865 to July 1866, the educational activity of the Bureau in Mississippi was under the direction of Dr. Joseph Warren. Following his resignation, the duties of the superintendent of education were performed by Assistant Commissioners for eight months, until H. R. Pease assumed the duties of the office on May 18, 1867. Pease found that some 63 teachers were employed in the major towns and villages by various educational and benevolent associations, and that another 31 teachers, who received aid from the Bureau, were employed by freedmen. Many of the schools, however, lacked adequate buildings, and in schools in areas where the black population was small, freedmen were unable to support teachers' salaries. Teachers and trustees had difficulty collecting tuition from pupils, and, with no teaching standards, some teachers were unfit to teach. The Bureau cooperated with educational and benevolent societies, and encouraged freedmen to contribute to the support of their schools by paying a monthly tuition. By December 1868, the number of pupils attending freedmen schools increased from over 2,000 in October 1867 to more than 6,000, and the number of freedmen schools increased from 47 to 115. Teachers commissioned by educational societies increased from 13 to 23; and teachers supported by freedmen and the Bureau went from 34 to 101. Assistant Commissioner Gillem reported that during the year ending October 1868, more whites were beginning to take an active role in assisting blacks in building schools and supporting teachers.4
The Bureau in Mississippi was very active in documenting and solemnizing marriages of freedmen. Continuing a practice started by military officials and civilians during the Civil War, Assistant Commissioner Samuel Thomas issued Circular Number 1 (July 3, 1865) authorizing his officers to keep a record of marriages of persons of color and gave instruction on how to maintain marriage registers. Returns of marriage certificates forwarded to the Office of the Commissioner by Assistant Commissioner Thomas include such information as the color of persons marrying, complexion of parents, and the number of years the couple had been living together as man and wife. The certificates also include data about the number of years the couple lived with another person, how they were separated, and the number of children by a previous connection. Marriage records in the records of the Mississippi Office of the Assistant Commissioner provide similar information. The registers for Davis Bend, Vicksburg, and Natchez, Mississippi, document the registration of more than 4,600 freedmen from Mississippi and northern Louisiana. Over half of the soldiers registering marriages for Natchez were members of the 6th Mississippi Heavy Artillery of the U. S. Colored Troops. Nearly all of the soldiers registering marriages for Davis Bend served with the 64th Colored Infantry. The Mississippi subdistrict field office also registered freedmen marriages or issued licenses and certificates in the subdistricts of Brookhaven, Columbus, Davis Bend, Goodman, Grenada, Jackson, and Pass Christian.5
The Southern Homestead Act (14 Stat. 66), approved by Congress on June 21, 1866, made available for public settlement 46 million acres of public lands in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Nearly 5 million acres of this Federal land was located in Mississippi. Because the act specifically prohibited discrimination against applicants due to race, it offered an opportunity for Mississippi freedmen and others to become landowners. Generally, the Freedmen's Bureau assisted interested freedmen through "Locating Agents" in finding plots, and provided them with one–month subsistence, free transportation to their prospective tracts of land, and seeds for the initial planting. In Mississippi, as in other public land states in the South, most freedmen were under labor agreements at the time of the act and were unable to take advantage of land opportunities. Because Mississippi had no land office, Bureau officials were unable to secure maps and other records relating to the quality and location of public lands in the state. By 1868, feeling that much of the public land for Mississippi was of poor quality and "Unfit for Agricultural Purposes," Bvt. Brig. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem, who replaced Thomas Wood in early 1867 as Mississippi Assistant Commissioner, made no effort to survey public lands. A land office was eventually opened in August 1868. By then, however, the Freedmen's Bureau, for all practical purposes, had been discontinued.6
ENDNOTES
1 William C. Harris, Presidential Reconstruction in Mississippi (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967), p. 84; Annual Reports of the Assistant Commissioners, Mississippi, October 10, 1867, p. 20, and December 12, 1868, pp. 11 – 12, Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Record Group 105, NARA.
2 House Ex. Doc. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., Serial Vol. 1256, pp. 167 – 168; Annual Reports, Mississippi, October 10, 1867, pp. 4 – 11, and December 12, 1868, pp. 3 – 4.
3 Donald G. Nieman, "The Freedmen's Bureau and the Mississippi Black Code," The Journal of Mississippi History XL, No. 2 (May 1978): pp. 92 – 99; House Ex. Doc. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 101 – 102.
4 Annual Reports, Mississippi, October 10, 1867, pp. 27 – 34; see also, the report for December 12, 1868, [pp. 12 – 17].
5 For a discussion of Mississippi marriage registers, see Herbert G. Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1790–1925 (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), pp. 18 – 24. The Mississippi marriage registers are reproduced in National Archives Microfilm Publication M826, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Mississippi, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869, Roll 42. Compiled service records for the 6th Mississippi Heavy Artillery, USCT, have been reproduced on microfilm publication M1818, Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops: Artillery Organizations, Rolls 109 – 133. For returns of marriage certificates forwarded to the Office of the Commissioner, see microfilm publication M1875, Marriage Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Washington Headquarters of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861–1869, Rolls 2 and 3.
6 Warren Hoffinagle, "The Southern Homestead Act: Its Origins and Operation," The Historian; A Journal of History, XXXII, No. 4 (1970): 618 – 620.
Freedmen's Bureau Personnel in Mississippi:
This list provides the names and dates of service of known Freedmen's Bureau personnel at selected subordinate field offices in Mississippi. Additional information regarding persons assigned to various field offices might be found among the Bureau's Washington headquarters station books and rosters of military officers and civilians on duty in the states and other appointment–related records.
ABERDEEN
Sept.–Nov. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Stuart Eldridge
Dec. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner William K. White (Agent at Okolona)
BROOKHAVEN
Mar.–Apr. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Z. B. Chatfield
Apr.–June 1866 -- Subcommissioner Robert P. Gardner
June 1866–Apr. 1867 -- Subcommissioner W. Eldridge
Apr.–July 1867 -- Subcommissioner W. Eldridge
July–Nov. 1867 -- Subcommissioner E. C. Gilbrath
Dec. 1867–Mar. 1868 -- Agent A. K. Long
Mar.–Oct. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. E. Platt
Oct.–Nov. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George Haller
Nov.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner John D. Moore
COLUMBUS
Mar. 1866–Mar. 1867 -- Subcommissioner George S. Smith
Mar.–May 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George S. Smith
May–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. G. Sprague
June–Aug. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George S. Smith
Aug.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner William K. White
Dec. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Bartholomew
Jan.–Mar. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner James Kelly
Mar.–Sept. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Bartholomew
Sept.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner James Kelly
CORINTH
Mar.–Aug. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner John D. Moore
Aug.–Sept. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George S. Smith
Feb.–Mar. 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner R. D. Mitchell
July 1866–Nov. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George W. Corliss
Mar.–Apr. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Allen P. Huggins (Agent at McKutt)
Apr.–Oct. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Allen P. Huggins (Agent at Greenwood)
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. E. Platt (Subassistant Commissioner at Greenwood)
FRIARS POINT
May–Oct. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Eldridge
Nov. 1868–Jan. 1869 -- Subassistant Commissioner D. M. White
GOODMAN
July–Aug. 1867 -- Agent H. W. Barry
Sept.–Nov. 1867 -- Agent Charles A. Shields
GREENVILLE
Mar.–Apr. 1867 -- Subcommissioner William L. Ryan
Sept.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner William L. Tidball
Dec.–1867–May 1868 and May–July 1868 -- Agent Thad K. Preuss
July–Aug. 1868 -- Agent Andrew Thomas
Sept.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent Samuel Goozee
GRENADA
Mar.–Apr. 1866 -- Subcommissioner S. Marvin
Apr.–Oct. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Silas May
Oct. 1866–July 1867 -- Assistant Subcommissioner James N. Shipley
Aug.–Sept. 1867 -- Assistant Subcommissioner D. M. White
Oct. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner William Shields
Feb.–Mar. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Charles Walden
Mar.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner William Wedemeyker
HOLLY SPRINGS
Sept.–Dec. 1867 -- Subcommissioner John Power
Dec. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Agent H. H. Service
Jan.–Oct. 1868 -- Subcommissioner John Power
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Clerk H. A. Cooper
JACKSON — Acting Assistant Commissioner of the Northern District of Mississippi
July 1865–Mar. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner of the Northern District of Mississippi R. S. Donaldson
JACKSON
Jan.–Mar. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Thomas Smith
Mar.–Nov. 1866 -- Subcommissioner H. Gardner
Dec. 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Subcommissioner H. R. Williams
Feb.–Aug. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Robert P. Gardner
Aug.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Samuel S. Sumner
Dec. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Allen P. Heuggins
Feb.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent Joseph B. Holt
LAKE STATION
Sept.–Oct. 1867 -- Agent Charles Walden
Nov. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George W. Corliss
Feb.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George W. Corliss (also at Forest)
LAUDERDALE
Apr.–July 1866 -- Subassistant Commissioner Henry E. Rainals
July 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner D. M. White
Mar. 1866–Aug. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Joseph W. Sunderland
Aug. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner John D. Moore
Feb.–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner John D. Moore (at Meridian)
Sept.–Oct. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner John D. Moore (at DeKalb)
Feb.–Apr. 1868 -- Agent John D. Moore
Apr.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent O. C. French
LEXINGTON
Aug.–Sept. 1867 -- Agent H. W. Barry
Dec. 1867 -- Agent C. A. Shields
LOUISVILLE
Sept. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Agent John Williams
Feb.–July 1868 -- Agent John Williams (at Durant)
July–Sept. 1868 -- Agent H. H. Service (at Durant)
MACON
Oct.–Dec. 1865 -- Subcommissioner Louis H. Gest
July–Sept. 1867 -- Agent William H. Ross
Oct. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Agent George S. Smith
MAGNOLIA
Aug.–Nov. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner York A. Woodward
Dec. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner (also at Woodville)
MERIDIAN
Aug. 1865 -- Subcommissioner C. W. Clark
Sept.–Nov. 1865 -- Subcommissioner E. L. Buckwalter
Jan.–July 1866 -- Subcommissioner John J. Knox
June–Aug. 1866 -- Subcommissioner James W. Sunderland
July–Dec. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Henry E. Rainals
Jan.–Feb. 1867 -- Subcommissioner James W. Sunderland
July–Sept. 1867 -- Subcommissioner Thomas H. Norton
Sept. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Agent Andrew Thomas
Feb.–July 1868 -- Agent (also Agent at Hickory)
NATCHEZ, Southern District of Mississippi
Mar.–July 1865 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen George D. Reynolds
July 1865–Mar. 1866 -- Acting Assistant Commissioner George D. Reynolds
NATCHEZ
Mar. 1866 -- Subcommissioner A. Kemper
July 1866–June 1867 -- Subcommissioner E. E. Platt
July 1867–Apr. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner James Biddle
Apr.–Aug. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner George Haller
Sept. 1868–Jan. 1869 -- Subassistant Commissioner Charles A. Wikoff
OKOLONA
Aug.–Sept. 1865 -- Subcommissioner J. M. Buel
Jan.–Mar. 1866 -- Subcommissioner W. F. DuBois
Nov.–Dec. 1867 -- Subcommissioner W. H. Eldridge (See Tupelo)
Dec. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subcommissioner William K. White (See Aberdeen)
OXFORD
May–June 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Edward B. Rossiter
June–Oct. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Thad. K. Preuss
PASS CHRISTIAN
Feb. 1866 -- Subcommissioner A. L. Hemingway
Apr.–June 1866 -- Subcommissioner John D. Moore
June 1866–Feb. 1867 -- Subcommissioner Robert P. Gardner
Feb.–Mar. 1867 -- Subcommissioner John D. Moore
Mar.–July 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner George W. Corliss
July–Sept. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner Charles Hyatt
Nov. 1867 -- Agent M. Lathrup (Agent)
PHILADELPHIA
Sept. 1867–Jan. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner Robert P. Gardner
PORT GIBSON
May–July 1865 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen at Rodney D. F. Hart
July–Aug. 1865 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen at Claiborne County D. F. Hart
Sept.–Nov. 1865 -- Subcommissioner H. O. Stavis
Nov. 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Subcommissioner James M. Babcock
Feb. 1866 -- Subcommissioner J. T. Hanna
June–Sept. 1867 -- Agent A. S. Alden
Dec. 1867–May 1868 -- Agent W. H. Eldridge (at Port Gibson) (See Tupelo)
Dec. 1868 -- Agent A. K. Long
SARDIS
Dec. 1867 -- Agent D. S. Harriman (also at Panola)
Dec. 1867–July 1868 -- Agent M. Lathrop (at Panola)
Aug. 1868 -- Agent M. Lathrop (at Sardis)
Sept. 1868 -- Clerk H. A. Cooper
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Clerk James H. Pierce
SKIPWITHS LANDING
Aug.–Oct. 1865 -- Subcommissioner S. G. Swain
Nov. 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Subcommissioner O. B. Foster
STARKVILLE
Sept. 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Agent Charles A. Sullivan
Mar.–July 1868 -- Agent C. L. Currier Coss
TUPELO
July–Nov. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Eldridge
Nov.–Dec. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Eldridge (at Okolona)
Dec. 1867–May 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Eldridge (at Port Gibson)
Aug.–Dec. 1868 -- Agent H. A. Kelly
VICKSBURG, Western District of Mississippi
June 1865 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen George D. Reynolds
June 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Assistant Commissioner J. H. Weber
VICKSBURG
Feb.–Mar. 1866 -- Subcommissioner S. G. Swain
May 1866 -- Subcommissioner J. K. Byers Fielding
July–Oct. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Neale George
Jan.–Mar. 1867 -- Subcommissioner W. Corliss
Apr.–July 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner J. H. Chapman
July 1867–Feb. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner E. E. Platt
Mar.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner J. H. Chapman
VICKSBURG
Sept.–Oct. 1864 -- Special Agent of the Treasury Department T. C. Callicot
Oct. 1864–July 1865 -- Special Agent of the Treasury Department C. A. Montross
WINCHESTER
Aug.–Dec. 1865 -- Subcommissioner William R. Gallian
May–Oct. 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner J. Whitney
WOODVILLE
Jan.–Feb. 1866 -- Agent William R. Gallian
Aug.–Nov. 1867 -- Assistant Subcommissioner George Haller
Dec. 1867–Dec. 1868 -- Assistant Subcommissioner (See Magnolia)
YAZOO CITY
June–July 1865 -- Provost Marshal of Freedmen Ozro B. Foster
July–Oct. 1865 -- Subcommissioner Ozro B. Foster
Oct.–Nov. 1865 -- Subcommissioner Charles W. Clarke
Dec. 1865–Feb. 1866 -- Subcommissioner Leonard P. Woodworth
Mar.–May 1867 -- Subassistant Commissioner D. M. White
May–Oct. 1867 -- Agent Alan P. Huggins
Oct. 1867–Oct. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner D. M. White
Oct.–Dec. 1868 -- Subassistant Commissioner W. H. Eldridge
Related Materials:
See also Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection
Provenance:
Acquired from FamilySearch International in 2015.
Restrictions:
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
