Freedmen

Scope and Contents The Address to the People of Hinds County, authored by John D. Freeman in 1865, is a broadside that explores the legal and social status of freedmen in Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. In the address, Freeman acknowledges the constitutional amendments granting formerly enslaved individuals personal liberty and property rights while emphasizing the state’s role in protecting these rights. He particularly focuses on the legal implications of these...

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a labor contract involving two plantations and three African American laborers. The contract was agreed to on December 28, 1865, between plantation owners, W. J. Mccalley and J. R. Wyley, and Richard Copperwait, a freedman sharecropper, on behalf of himself and his two stepsons, Semion King (fourteen years old) and Smith King (twelve years old).

Scope and Contents This collection contains three file copies of legal petitions submitted on June 1, 1865, by Sidney Smith on behalf of Mrs. E.R. Curtis, H.H. Curtis, and William H. Curtis of Williamsburg, Virginia. The petitions were addressed to Brigadier General B.C. Ludlow, Commanding General of the Peninsula District, and request the return of the Curtis family plantation, which had been seized by Union forces during the Civil War and subsequently repurposed as a settlement for freed African Americans...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a single letter signed by D. J. F., dated October 4, 1865, written from Houston, Texas, to his Aunt Lara. In this account, D. J. F., a brakeman on a Texas railroad, describes life in Houston during the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. He discusses the presence of Union troops occupying the city, the breakdown of civil order, and the social dynamics following emancipation. Notably, he reflects on interactions with formerly enslaved individuals, including those...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a rare original broadside charter and one membership certificate for Alabama chapters of the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association of America, dated 1899. The document, printed on a folio broadside (20 x 13.75 inches) with ornate border and varied typography, includes the formal charter text, completed with the names of local chapter officers and signed by three national officers: Rev. D.D. McNairy (President), I.H. Dickerson (General Manager),...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a single printed circular letter dated April 8, 1868, issued from Atlanta by Frank M. Gallagher on behalf of the Freedmen’s Bureau. The order addresses concerns about “assemblages of large numbers of colored persons, holding political discussions…guarded by numbers of armed men,” and requires that such meetings be held in the open and with prior notice given to authorities.Though nominally a measure to preserve public safety, the circular functionally...

Scope and Contents This collection comprises ninety printed General Orders issued in 1863 from the Headquarters of the Department of the Gulf in New Orleans, along with a thirteen-page printed index. The set is nearly complete, lacking only orders numbered 13, 19, 26, 33, 46, 48, 62, 67, 81, and 86. Issued during Major General Nathaniel P. Banks’s tenure as commander, these orders document the complex administrative functions of a Union Army headquarters during military occupation in the Deep...

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Personal papers, mostly involving the activities of this Perry County farmer and justice of the peace.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of an original pencil sketch measuring 6.5 x 5 inches, depicting two African Americans engaged in conversation. One of the figures holds what appears to be a U.S. flag, while additional subjects are visible in the background. The scene likely captures a moment following the departure of Union troops, with formerly enslaved individuals collecting discarded materials. The sketch was possibly created during or shortly after the Civil War by an artist working in the...

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Three bound volumes of this Alabama attorney and politician and his wife: John Cochran's diary; Mary Wellborn Cochran's journal; and a miscellany of copies of some of John Cochran's outgoing correspondence, journal entries of his, and copies of some freedman contracts to which he was party. Also includes two unidentified photographs that appear to be from the early twentieth century.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a single typed fundraising letter, signed by William E. Benson, dated August 22, 1912, and sent from Kowaliga, Alabama, to Miss C. Livingston of Manitou, New York. Written on official Kowaliga School for Colored Youth stationery, the letter appeals for financial support to sustain and expand the school’s mission of providing academic and industrial education to African American children in rural Alabama. Benson highlights the severe disparities in state...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a four-page handwritten letter from a Union soldier named Albert, dated March 28, 1863, and sent from New Berne, North Carolina, to his sister, Ella. In vivid detail, Albert describes his regiment’s movements during and after the Battle of Fort Anderson (also known as the Battle of Deep Gully), including difficult marches through deep mud, picket duty, and an attempted Confederate attack on New Berne. The letter notably includes Albert’s account of using an...

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This document is a letter from Calvin Rice, a Union soldier from Massachusetts, to a family member, Oscar Rice. Written while stationed on Edisto Island, South Carolina, the letter provides firsthand insights into one of the main colonies of escaped formerly enslaved individuals during the Civil War. The letter offers a perspective on the role of Union soldiers in occupied Southern territories and the experiences of freed people during the war.

Scope and Contents This signed letter by former Congressman and Confederate diplomat Reuben Chapman, is addressed to Alabama lawyer and former Confederate officer Septimus Douglass Cabaniss. Written on February 5, 1869, from Sumter County, Alabama, the letter discusses Chapman's interactions with freedmen sharecroppers, his concerns about cotton prices, and various business dealings. Chapman describes purchasing the freedmen's share of the cotton crop amid concerns over price fluctuations and their growing...

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Broadside listing the thirteen rules of conduct for "all concerned" which included: freedmen, employers, and employees regardless of color.

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This collection consists of the proceedings of an 1868 military commission trial of Randolph at Selma, Alabama, for the assault and battery of a Freedman named Balus Eddins.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a four-page letter signed by Thurlow Joseph Wright, dated September 7, 1863, and written from the “Contraband Camp” in Memphis, Tennessee. Wright, a U.S. Army surgeon who would later serve with the 64th United States Colored Troops, writes to his sister Caroline Wright in Cincinnati. The letter discusses military life, pay issues, and weather, but its most significant content is Wright’s detailed account of the African American school at the contraband...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of two four-page letters written in 1862 by an unidentified soldier serving in the 5th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry during the American Civil War. Composed on patriotic stationery, the letters are addressed respectively to the soldier's mother and sister and are datelined "Camp Greenwood near Houston, Texas Co[unty], Missouri, June 2d, 1862" and "Helena, Ark[ansas], Oct 18th, 1862." The letters provide vivid firsthand accounts of Union cavalry operations in Missouri and...