Source:South Carolina, United States. Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,

Watchers
Source Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
Author Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
Coverage
Place South Carolina, United States
Year range 1865 - 1872
Publication information
Type Government / Church records
Citation
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872.
Repositories
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)Other

Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau)

The records left by the Freedmen's Bureau through its work between 1865 and 1872 constitute the richest and most extensive documentary source available for investigating the African American experience in the post-Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Historians have used these materials to explore government and military policies, local conditions, and interactions between freedpeople, local white populations, and Bureau officials.

These records present the genealogist and social historian with an unequaled wealth of information that extends the reach of black family studies. Documents such as local censuses, marriage records, and medical records provide freedpeople's full names and former masters; Federal censuses through 1860 listed slaves only statistically under the master's household. No name indexes are available at this time, but the documents can be rewarding, particularly since they provide full names, residences, and, often, the names of former masters and plantations.

It was through the local offices that subassistant commissioners, superintendents, agents, claims officers, clerks, provost marshals, disbursing officers, and medical officers provided direct assistance to and had direct contact with freedpeople.

The field office reports, letters received and sent, contracts, certificates, registers, censuses, affidavits, and other documents preserve, directly and vividly, the experiences and circumstances of the individuals involved: freedpeople, Bureau officers, landowners and employers, and others.

They contain desperate pleas for food, clothing, and medical care from rural communities; freedpeoples' testimonies about delinquent employers, continued use of forced labor and apprenticeship, violence, and restrictions due to the new state-legislated and repressive "black codes"; petitions for new schools, legal aid in courts, and protection from violence; applications for land; and marriage certificates.

These records are filled with names and personal information, whether in marriage certificates, labor contracts, hospital records, complaints, relief rolls, or trial summaries. Further, many of these records preserve firsthand descriptions of the harsh and racially divisive conditions in which these named individuals struggled to establish families, train and educate themselves, and live in self-sufficiency and freedom.

The text for this page was copied from the National Archives and Records Administration website, URL:

[1]