Sample Documents

We want you to know what a rich resource Freedmen’s Bureau records are for your research. We’ve chosen a wide variety of example records for you to view.

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“Sir
Jane McNele (fw) complains that you have her children and will not give them up. You will deliver them to her when she applies or sends for them and have nothing further to do with them….”
Columbia, TX, July 7, 1868

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Register of Freedmen at Home Colony, Davis Bend, MS

The Home Colony at Davis Bend, Mississippi was established by the Freedmen's Bureau in 1863-64 on land formerly owned by Jefferson Davis and his brother. Residents of the colony farmed some 5,000 acres on the site of the former Davis Bend Plantation, and in 1864...

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Register of School Children, Camden, Ouchita, AR, 1867

This register of schoolchildren in Camden, Ouchita County, AR records the names of freed children enrolled in school in February, March, April, May and June of 1867. Within the journal, the record format is quite variable. The first few pages of the register list the...

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Register of Patients, Hilton Head, SC Hospital, 1865-1868

Within Roll 84 of South Carolina Freedmen's Bureau records is a register of patients at the hospital at Hilton Head, SC. The register records the date of treatment, name of patient and ailment. Although there are column headings for race, age and gender, the...

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A Freedman’s Quest to Unite His Family, Salisbury, NC

Mr. A Miller Aug 18 Sir, You will let the bearer Mark(?) have his wife Charlot and her two children Poley and William (colored) to take to the plantation of Mr. Stokes. You will furnish them with provisions enough to last until January 1866. I shall expect you to do...

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