Freedmen’s Bureau
LOC (LC-USZ62-1055555)
I found the proverbial needle in a haystack when I found my 4th great-grandfather, Perry Simpson, in Freedmen’s Bureau records. I have searched in thousands of pages of these records through the years and that is no exaggeration.
Perry Simpson’s Complaint
I found his name in a Register of Letters Received in the Field Office Records for Maryland and Delaware. A “register” is one of the formats the agents used to document the many letters that poured in, and each register entry provides a brief summary.
Perry, who lived in Howard County, was launching a complaint against Delilah Duvall. She had agreed to split shares of the crop with him (presumably in 1866) and after the crop came in, she refused to give him his share of the crop.
Sadly, this was very common in the years after emancipation:
Register of Letter, Jan 1867
I’m still searching for his original letter, but I also found his case referenced in the book of Endorsements, which shows his complaint traveling up the chain of command.
Unfortunately, in the end, there was no justice for Perry. An excerpt from the Endorsement stated:
nothing more has been done in the case, except to call the attention of the State’s Atty Genl for Howard Co. to the matter who informs us with regret that nothing more can be done, Duvall is very worthless-a civil trial will only subject the man Simpson to more expense for nothing, as no Justice of the Peace in that county will give judgement on negro evidence.
They do not refuse to take evidence, but allow him to testify in order to avoid the Civil Rights Bill, but do not allow the testimony to have any weight in making their decision, as reported by Mr. Lands [?] the attorney a true friend of the Bureau
I was surprised at how emotional this document made me. It took a lot of courage for a former slave to formally complain to the Bureau. Retribution from local whites, including acts of violence and even murder were common.
Background History
The above outcome references the 1866 Civil Rights Bill passed by Congress. It came up quite bit in Bureau records, because it was supposed to change one of the reasons why black people were always so vulnerable: their testimony could never be used in most states against any whites.
When the law was passed, some local law enforcement officials still refused to take complaints from blacks without white witnesses, and the Bureau pressed for prosecution of those local officials.
What is illustrated in Perry’s case is that this particular Howard County official would take his testimony and allow it in court in order to avoid prosecution under the law, but it wouldn’t be given any weight. This foreshadowed what happened again in the 1950s and 1960s in America, during the modern Civil Rights Movement.
I tell you, there is so much today that we simply take for granted. I can’t fathom what it must have been like to live with the fear that anything–ANYTHING–could be done to you with no redress.
I predict that when the Freedmens Bureau Indexing Project is completed later this year, family historians are going to reclaim scores of their enslaved ancestors and lost histories.
But we don’t have to wait until then.
Online Records
Many of the Freedmen’s Bureau Records have been digitized and are freely accessible on Familysearch.org. Though the records are difficult to navigate, I suggested a workable strategy to research them back in 2012.
I recommend you go page-by-page through those records; it’s not difficult to scan through the images and that is the only way I found Perry’s letter. The digitization of the Bureau records makes scrolling through a few hundred images pretty easy.
Aside from possibly finding a family member, you will learn about the community where your ancestor lived during the transition from slavery to freedom. You will read the stories of former slaves striving:
–to find family members sold during slavery
–to reclaim children being held illegally by former owners
–to be paid for their labor, after employers throw them off the land
–to get legal redress for other crimes against them
–to build schools
–to get their bounty money and pensions
–to find work
…and more. The only problem is getting sidetracked. I became engrossed in many of these stories, whether or not they were my ancestors!
Tell me in the comments if any of you have had any luck in these records yet. If not, keep looking. Use my find as inspiration;)
I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. I have been a researcher, writer, and teacher for over twenty years. This blog is where I share family history strategies, resources, tips and advice for all genealogists. I also discuss researching slavery and its aftermath. This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my family’s past. I’ve taken back– reclaimed– some of that lost memory, especially that of my enslaved ancestors. I hope you’ll sign up to receive my posts—if you do, you’ll get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! And please do share posts that interest you.
Congrats! Its an exhilarating experience when you find this kind of record on your ancestor and at the same time, tempered by the sadness of injustice done to them. I found a Freedmen’s Bureau complaint lodged by my 3x great grandmother. Her former slave owner had put her name on a contract without her permission. Fortunately, she got a ruling in her favor that it was a case of forgery and since she was of age, she could be hired to whomever she pleased. This was in 1866 as well.
I have never looked at the records but I am so glad that you were able to find your ancestor! Hopefully others will follow your lead and similarly find their ancestors.
What an incredibly sad story and so unjust for Perry. I can’t imagine how hard and frustrating it must have been for him at that time to be treated so unfairly and have no means of getting justice. It is certainly a sad and ugly time in our US history.
Congratulations! That was a great find indeed. Perseverance pays off.