A Labor Contract Made on February 23, 1864?

Yes! That is right! A system of labor was organized before the Freedmen's Bureau was created.  In the State of Louisiana, Iberville Parish, under General Order No. 23, an agreement was entered into between Victorine Duprey and 31 named "negroes" for 14 percent of one year's proceeds from the crop of sugar and molasses on Victorine's plantation. The 31 negroes were not called freedmen as was the case with other labor contracts I have indexed after the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau.

The Southern part of Louisiana was under the control of the federal government almost a year before this agreement was made. General Order No. 23 mentioned above refers to an order issued by General Nathaniel Banks, Commander of the Department of the Gulf, on February 3, 1864 as part of the wartime politics to institute a policy which paved the way for freedmen to realize liberties and earn wages while helping to keep order and plantation work going. See Civil War Book Review:  Binding Contracts.

I think it is wonderful that these records have been included. It would be interesting to research how much was learned from the implementation of this policy for the eventual formation of the Freedmen's Bureau. You just never know what you might discover while indexing.  I hope I am raising your curiosity by now. You can get a feel for the wealth of information in these records as you help make them available to the descendants of over 4,000,000 African ancestored freedmen.

The men were listed separately from the women. One thing that really stood out to me about this labor contract is how three of the men's surnames were given. I think it is because they all had the given name, Jim:

• Jim Low
• Jim Montesquieu (You would think I would be able to find him with a name like that. Can you?)
• Jim Wilson

I was able to trace Victorine Duprey to 1900 where she was still living in the household with her father.  I tried to compare residents next door in 1870 and 1880, but I was not able to connect anyone with the freedmen on this labor contract. It is more difficult to discern who may be related on this contract because of how they separated the males from the females. 

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What Do Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contracts Have to do With Free People of Color?

The batch I downloaded to index last night came from Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Concordia Parish was created on April 10, 1805. Even though the parish suffered some loss from tornado and flood, a quick call to the Clerk of Court of Concordia Parish confirms the following records are available on site:

• deeds from 1802 from the time of the Spaniards
• marriage records from the 1800's
• criminal records from the early 1900's 
• probate records (kept downstairs but available for viewing)

Using these other resources to learn more about freedmen ancestors and the relationships between them and the people they entered into labor contracts with can be very helpful. The first page of the batch had no extractable data, but it was useful nonetheless because it listed the plantations in Concordia Parish with recorded labor contracts for the years 1866-1868. If you were searching the names of a plantation in this area during that time period, this would prove very useful. Here are screenshots showing the names of the plantations listed: 

Concordia Parish, Louisiana with Labor Contracts 1866-1868

Plantation, Year	Plantation, Year	Plantation, Year
Bothgrown, 1867	Fletcher, 1867	Moreville, 1868
Experience, 1866	Lucerna, 1867	Sycamore, 1867
Cotton Ridge, 1867	Good Hope, 1867	Refuge, 1867
Connor, 1866	Helena, 1868	Rifle Point, 1866, 1867 & 1868
Elba, 1868	Innesfail, 1866 & 1867	Spoken, 1867
William Earhart, 1868	Killanrey, 1867	Ft. Genevieve, 1867

If I knew I had an ancestor that was emancipated in Concordia Parish and I did not know the name of the former owner, I would research these plantations to discover the names of the owners. Then I would determine the name of the local field office and search those records for the plantation owner and my ancestor.

It is not as difficult as you might think to research if you know how to use online resources.  I decided to search to see what interesting tidbits I could find out about a few of these plantations. I first searched out Ft. Genevieve Plantation.  It has an intriguing history where I learned enough to peak my curiousity to learn more about the history of a family who were freed long before Emancipation.

William T. Johnson and his sister, Adelia, were children of a free woman of color, Amy Johnson, who gained her freedom in 1814.  Her children were freed by planter, another William Johnson, in Adams County, Mississippi.  Adams County, Mississippi is adjacent to Concordia Parish, LA. William was freed in 1820, and his sister was freed in 1818.  William married Ann Battles who was freed along with her mother in 1822.  They had 10 children.

William found himself in a dispute over the property line of his plantation.  He was assasinated by one of the parties in dispute with him on June 16, 1851. His son, Byron became head of the family. Byron served in the Mississippi Federal Colored Milita. See Black Soldiers in the Civil War.  As it turns out, Ft Genevieve was owned by Ayers P. Merrill, Jr. in 1869.  Byron Johnson whose parents were free prior to Emancipation leased Ft. Genevieve from Ayers P. Merrill.

This could solve a very tangled web for anyone who had ancestors who were emancipated on Ft Genevieve Plantation. You could now begin researching Freedmen's Bureau Records to learn if documentation exists mentioning Byron Johnson from 1869 to 1872. The question in my mind is why did Byron lease Ft. Genevieve? Prior to that, it is quite possible that Ayers P. Merrill may appear on records with freedmen on his plantation. That would be an interesting avenue of research to persue.

If this story excites you as much as it does me, then you are in for a real treat! You can access the entire digitized collection at Free People of Color in Louisiana: Revealing an Unknown Past.
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Citation:  William T. Johnson and Family Memorial Papers, Mss. 529, 561, 597, 770, 926, 1093, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge.

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Why Am I Indexing Freedmen's Bureau Records?

Arrival of freedmen and their families at Baltimore, Maryland - an every day scene

• Digital ID: (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a38182 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a38182

Who said indexing was not fun?  Not me. I can distinctly remember being handed papers to extract information in the 1990's while we were in the Chicago Heights Stake. I had a small toddler. I did not understand the full measure of what I was doing at the time, but I remember the feeling I had when I worked on that project each week. I could not wait to turn in the batch of papers to ask for more every Sunday.

Indexing today

The internet was nothing like what it is today. I could not have wrapped my brain around what indexing has done for online record access today, but I get that same "good feeling" when I submit a batch. I know I am helping someone discover an ancestor.

I am especially excited to be involved with indexing for The Freedmen's Bureau Project. I have been researching since 1985, and I have overcome a lot of road blocks along the way. A year ago after decades of scouring resources, I kind of felt like I may be getting to the end of records I could actually access without extensive traveling. The desire to have access to historical records documenting my family motivated us to relocate to South Carolina in 2005 so I could get to know extended family and delve into archive records.

I learned that the SC archives held the Freedmen's Bureau records on microfilm for our state, but those records are in a file cabinet on microfilm that is not indexed.  Needless to say, I whittled away at other collections that were indexed. I had a fear that when it came down to researching freedmen ancestors I would have to live at the archives torturing my eyes and not finding a thing, but Lo! and Behold! Our friends at FamilySearch.org purchased the Freedmen's collection and made the images available for us to browse in our bunny slippers at home!  I am so grateful.

I found the field office records for South Carolina, and in a few minutes, I discovered a labor contract listing three of my ancestors on image 21 of Union District in 1866. Unfortunately discovery will not be that easy for most people. They will have challenges finding ancestors on a Freedmen's Bureau record.
So what is to be done?

Give back, have fun

We need to get involved by helping to index. In the process, we will discover indexing is fun. Oh, don't get me wrong. You will feel a bit of a challenge at first, but there are places you can learn and find help. My favorite place to seek answers to my questions is the Facebook group:  Freedmen's Bureau Project Indexers. They know how to help you, and they make things really fun. I have really enjoyed being a part of the group. I do not feel I am alone.

I brought up the indexing software on my computer tonight, and I decided from now on I would do a little extra to really make this experience meaningful to me. I want to remember that I am not just indexing names. I am bringing to light real people who had real lives and real struggles and overcame real challenges and had real stories. I am going to look for an historical record for at least one person or family each time I index. I know that this will make these folks feel more real to me.

Tonight I decided to search for people on a labor contract that I just indexed:

I could not make out the name at first. It looked like "Foard."  That is funny because that is how you would phonetically pronounce "Ford."  I had to look at the actual contract to figure out the correct spelling was "Foard." Each instance of the surname was spelled the same way, and Robert signed his own name, "Foard."  I have never seen that surname before.

I decided this one would be great to look up on the 1860 Census. I looked for Robert Ford in Christian County, Kentucky in 1860.  Interestingly enough, a Robt. Foard did come up living in that location in 1860:

"United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-25246-44555-35?cc=1473181 : accessed 10 February 2016), Kentucky > Christian > Not Stated > image 229 of 271; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

As a matter of fact, there were a lot of Foards living in Christian County, Kentucky in 1860, so I was confident the surname should be spelled, "Foard."  I went back and changed my entries which you can tell were indexed incorrectly above. Now, I could have asked in the Facebook group, but I was having a little fun with this.

Next, I became curious about the freedwomen who signed the labor contract. They were recorded using the same surname as the person with whom they had made the agreement.  I searched the 1870 Census for people with the last name, Foard.  I found a Nancy Forad. I figured it would be neat if this was the same Nancy Foard who had signed the contract:

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11662-149033-78?cc=1438024 : accessed 10 February 2016), Kentucky > Christian > Civil District 6 > image 34 of 44; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Nancy is living next door to a white Forad family. 

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11662-149033-78?cc=1438024 : accessed 10 February 2016), Kentucky > Christian > Civil District 6 > image 34 of 44; citing NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

I immediately compared the 1870 Census with the 1860 Census to see if any of the white Foards in 1860 matched any of the Foards from 1870 living next door to Nancy Foard. Here are the reasons I think this is the same family:

• Both households have a member of the house named Robt. H. Foard who is 10 in 1860 and 20 in 1870
• Both households have a John W. Foard who is 12 in 1860 and 23 in 1870. 

I do not think these are coincidences, but an actual descendant would be able to provide more insights. Also, tracing each individual to find a vital record may help establish relationships, and perhaps Nancy was mentioned in a will prior to 1865. Anyway, I have to finish indexing that batch, but what fun! Maybe this blog post will come up in a Google search for a descendant seeking to learn more about the Foards. 

I hope this helps you to act on a desire to get involved in the Freedmen's Bureau Project. To learn more, visit. DiscoverFreedmen.org.

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