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75–060 PDF 2001

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU PRESERVATION ACT: ARE

THESE RECONSTRUCTION ERA RECORDS BEING

PROTECTED

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT,

INFORMATION, AND TECHNOLOGY

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON

GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

OCTOBER 18, 2000

Serial No. 106–277

Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house

http://www.house.gov/reform

(II)

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman

BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York

CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

STEPHEN HORN, California

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia

DAVID M. MCINTOSH, Indiana

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida

STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio

MARSHALL ‘‘MARK’’ SANFORD, South

Carolina

BOB BARR, Georgia

DAN MILLER, Florida

ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas

LEE TERRY, Nebraska

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois

GREG WALDEN, Oregon

DOUG OSE, California

PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin

HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE, Idaho

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

TOM LANTOS, California

ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia

MAJOR R. OWENS, New York

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,

DC

CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

JIM TURNER, Texas

THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine

HAROLD E. FORD, JR., Tennessee

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois

———

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont

(Independent)

KEVIN BINGER, Staff Director

DANIEL R. MOLL, Deputy Staff Director

JAMES C. WILSON, Chief Counsel

ROBERT A. BRIGGS, Chief Clerk

PHIL SCHILIRO, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION, AND TECHNOLOGY

STEPHEN HORN, California, Chairman

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois

THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia

GREG WALDEN, Oregon

DOUG OSE, California

PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin

JIM TURNER, Texas

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

MAJOR R. OWENS, New York

PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

EX OFFICIO

DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

J. RUSSELL GEORGE, Staff Director and Chief Counsel

EARL PIERCE, Professional Staff Member

ELIZABETH SEONG, Clerk

TREY HENDERSON, Minority Counsel

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on October 18, 2000 .......................................................................... 1

Statement of:

Millender-McDonald, Hon. Juanita, a Representative in Congress from

the State of California .................................................................................. 4

Swygert, H. Patrick, president, Howard University, accompanied by Dr.

Thomas C. Battle, director, the Howard University Mooreland-Spingarn

Research Center; and Dr. Elizabeth Clarke Lewis, director of the public

history project, Howard University ............................................................. 8

Washington, Reginald, African American Genealogy Subject Area Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration; Michael Kurtz, Assistant Archivist of the United States for Records Services, National

Archives and Records Administration; Professor Tony Burroughs, adjunct professor of genealogy, Chicago State University; and Henry

Wiencek, resident fellow, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities ......... 24

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Burroughs, Professor Tony, adjunct professor of genealogy, Chicago State

University, prepared statement of ............................................................... 36

Horn, Hon. Stephen, a Representative in Congress from the State of

California, prepared statement of ................................................................ 3

Kurtz, Michael, Assistant Archivist of the United States for Records

Services, National Archives and Records Administration, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 31

Swygert, H. Patrick, president, Howard University, prepared statement

of ..................................................................................................................... 12

Turner, Hon. Jim, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas,

prepared statement of ................................................................................... 7

Washington, Reginald, African American Genealogy Subject Area Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration, prepared statement

of ..................................................................................................................... 26

Wiencek, Henry, resident fellow, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities,

prepared statement of ................................................................................... 49

(1)

FREEDMEN’S BUREAU PRESERVATION ACT:

ARE THESE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

RECORDS BEING PROTECTED

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2000

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT,

INFORMATION, AND TECHNOLOGY,

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM,

Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room

2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Stephen Horn (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Horn and Kanjorski.

Also present: Representative Millender-McDonald.

Staff present: J. Russell George, staff director and chief counsel;

Earl Pierce, professional staff member; Bonnie Heald, director of

communications; Elizabeth Seong, clerk; George Frazer, intern;

Pearl-Alice Marsh, senior policy advisor for Representative

Millender-McDonald; Trey Henderson, minority counsel; and Jean

Gosa, minority clerk.

Mr. HORN. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology will come to

order.

135 years ago yesterday, 40-year-old former slave George Mason

died in City Point, VA. His official death certificate is one simple

line in a ledger book so tattered by age that a ribbon holds its fading pages together. If there are other records about Mr. Mason’s

life, they are likely buried somewhere in the millions of pages of

deteriorating documents from the former Freedmen’s Bureau.

We are here today to examine H.R. 5157, the ‘‘Freedmen’s Bureau Records Preservation Act of 2000,’’ introduced by Representatives Juanita Millender-McDonald of California and J.C. Watts of

Oklahoma. This bill requires the Archivist of the United States to

use all available technology to preserve and catalog the records of

the Freedmen’s Bureau.

On March 3, 1865, the 38th Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen’s

Bureau. This bureau was given the authority to supervise and

manage activities relating to the newly emancipated African Americans. Following the bureau’s closure on June 30, 1872, the records

from its regional offices were sent to the National Archives for storage where, to this day, these vital links to history languish in their

original state, due to lack of attention and funding.

2

Today, we will examine the condition of these records. We will

also discuss how these records could be maintained and preserved

to help millions of Americans—now and in future generations—better understand their heritage.

We welcome our witnesses, and look forward to their testimony.

I am glad to see my neighbor from southern California, Juanita

Millender-McDonald, and we would be glad to listen to your testimony on this.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Stephen Horn follows:]

3

4

STATEMENT OF HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank

you for your sensitivity to this issue. Good morning to Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. I am very pleased to come

before you this morning, and I am sure to be joined by Representative J.C. Watts, my colleague that is cosponsoring this piece of legislation. We come to you this morning to share the reasons why we

have proposed the Freedmen’s Bureau Preservation Act of 2000.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, properly called the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of this government on March 3, 1865. This act

was the culmination of several years of efforts as the U.S. Government, embroiled in Civil War, sought to settle the slave problem for

the United States.

From 1619 to 1800, more than 660,000 African men, women, and

children were torn from their homelands in West Africa, herded

onto ships and brought to North America as slaves. While the

southern economy was flourishing from slave labor, the country simultaneously was building a new democracy based on the principles of liberty and individual freedom. As the democracy debate

clarified issues of government and citizenship, grave contradictions

were drawn between slavery and our Nation’s first principle of individual freedom. As President Lincoln said, the government could

not endure permanently half slave and half free.

On July 4, 1861, President Lincoln in a speech to Congress said

that the war was ‘‘a People’s contest . . . a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form and substance of government, whose

leading object is to elevate the condition of men . . ..’’ and this War

Between the States was, among other things, a war about the condition of the slaves.

This very body was engaged in the overwhelming challenge of

moving millions of slaves from bondage to freedom. In March 1864,

the House passed a bill by a slender majority of two that established a bureau for freed men in the War Department. The Senate

reported a substitute bill to the House too late for action attaching

the Bureau to the Treasury Department.

After the 1864 elections, the House and Senate conferred and

proposed a bureau independent of either War or Treasury. In the

political machinations between these elected Representatives, the

Senate could not agree with the House. A new conference committee was appointed which finally in 1865 established in the War Department a Bureau of Refugees, Freed Men and Abandoned Lands.

Thus, the War Department set about the enormous task of documenting, supervising and managing the transition of slaves from

bondage to freedom.

The Bureau deployed field offices in Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. These offices were responsible

for all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and

freed men, including issuing rations, clothing, and medicine. The

Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in

5

the former Confederate States, border States, District of Columbia,

and Indian territory. The Bureau records that were created and

maintained became the documented history of the greatest social

undertaking in this country’s history.

During this tumultuous period of transformation between 1865

and 1872, the Freedmen’s Bureau recorded the movements of

slaves from community to community and State to State. For historians and genealogists these records provide the critical link between the Civil War and the 1870 census, the first one to list African Americans by name. Former slaves, recognized formerly in government records only by sex, age and color, were named in the Bureau records as individuals in marriage, government rations lists,

lists of colored persons, labor contracts, indentured contracts for

minors, medical records, and as victims of violence.

Many historical and genealogical associations like the African

American Historical and Genealogical Society, the African American Research Project, the Association for the Study of African

American Life and History, the Internet-based Afrigeneas, and annual gatherings like the family reunion have popularized African

American genealogy and historical research. African Americans,

like many other Americans, look to official records for their ancestors. As ship manifests are the vital link between European Americans and their European ancestors, the Freedmen’s Bureau records

are the link for African Americans to their slave and African ancestors.

The original Freedmen’s Bureau records are presently preserved

at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC. Greater access to these records is a high priority for millions of Americans interested in Civil War and post-Civil War history and millions of African Americans interested in their family

genealogy. There are many historians, genealogists, and family researchers interested in exploring the vast contents of these records.

H.R. 5157 calls on the Archivist to microfilm the Freedmen’s Bureau records, create a surname index, and put this index on-line.

Innovative imaging and indexing technologies can make these

records easily accessible to the public, including historians, genealogists, novice genealogy enthusiasts, and students.

In fact, the Internet has transformed genealogy research. The research word ‘‘genealogy’’ lists 2,367,600 matches on-line and is

growing daily. I took the liberty of a quick search for the chairman

and ranking member’s family names and came up with the following results, Mr. Chairman. The search string ‘‘Horn Genealogy’’ results in over 16,600 matches on-line and the search string ‘‘Turner

Genealogy’’ resulted in 34,900 matches.

Some major Internet efforts include: The Mormon’s Family History Center has on-line resources that serve all ethnic groups.

The USGenWeb project consists of volunteers who provide Internet Web sites for genealogical research in every county and every

State of the United States.

Afrigeneas is the on-line African American genealogy research

group.

JewishGen is the premier source of Jewish genealogy worldwide.

6

And these are just a few. The Internet abounds with Web sites

and resources for every identity group and family name imaginable.

As a member of the House of Representatives, descendant of

slaves and a genealogy enthusiast, I urge the subcommittee to recommend passage of this bill to the Committee on Government Reform. I look forward to H.R. 5157 passing the House and Senate

and becoming law so this period in our history can become known

even further to the American citizens interested in our past.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HORN. We thank you for that very good overview. I think you

have time to sit with the panel this morning.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Yes.

Mr. HORN. We are delighted to have you. There is unanimous

consent.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Jim Turner follows:]

7

8

Mr. HORN. I have one question. The Archives has a pilot project

with a school, the University of Florida, to preserve and index a

few of the Freedmen’s Bureau records. That is one possibility of

sub possibilities. The other is the National Historical Publications

and Records Commission, which is part of the Archives and makes

grants.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Right.

Mr. HORN. What do you feel would be the best approach from the

research you’ve done on this? Would it go directly to the Archives?

Would it go to a private sector, public sector pilot project, as apparently the University of Florida is, or work through the National

Historical Publications and Records Commission?

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you for that question. As I

have pondered this, I would like to see extended pilot programs in

a lot of the HBCUs, or at least some of them where the States that

I have listed have, I guess, the wherewithal to provide this pilot

program. And given that there are States that currently have access to this, we should extend those pilot programs. I cannot but

think of the history in the years that I talked with my grandmother and others and they said if you don’t know your history,

you are damned to repeat it, and if you don’t know where you have

come from you don’t know where you are going, and I think our

younger generation need to get some insight as to the historical

perspective that these records can afford.

Mr. HORN. You are absolutely right on that. I go into 50 to 100

classrooms a year and I am a little disappointed sometimes about

the lack of knowledge of history of the United States.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Absolutely.

Mr. HORN. We are glad that you will stay with us. Mr. Kanjorski

has joined us as the ranking member, and we will call up panel

two. President Swygert of Howard University is accompanied by

Dr. Thomas C. Battle, the Director of the Howard University

Mooreland-Spingarn Research Center and Dr. Elizabeth Clarke

Lewis, Director of the Public History Project, Howard University.

We have a rule in the committees of Government Reform that we

swear all witnesses except Members of Congress.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. HORN. The clerk will note that three of you have affirmed.

We will begin with President Swygert. We are delighted to have

you here. You run a very distinguished university.

STATEMENTS OF H. PATRICK SWYGERT, PRESIDENT, HOWARD

UNIVERSITY, ACCOMPANIED BY DR. THOMAS C. BATTLE, DIRECTOR, THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY MOORELANDSPINGARN RESEARCH CENTER; AND DR. ELIZABETH

CLARKE LEWIS, DIRECTOR OF THE PUBLIC HISTORY

PROJECT, HOWARD UNIVERSITY

Mr. SWYGERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to

testify on behalf of this incredibly important piece of legislation.

Mr. Chairman, as you noted, I am accompanied today by Dr. Elizabeth Clarke Lewis and Dr. Thomas Battle, who is director of the

Mooreland-Spingarn Research Center, the largest collection of African American materials outside of the Library of Congress. I am

9

also accompanied by Ms. Donna Brock, who is the assistant vice

president of University Communications.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to especially

acknowledge and thank the gentleman to your left, Mr. Russell

George, who is a great son of Howard University. We very much

appreciate his enthusiasm for this piece of important legislation

and his alma mater.

Mr. HORN. We appreciate that. We keep Russell George very

busy. You have taught him how to think well and how to get moving. When this came up, we didn’t have to take 2 seconds to know

this is what we wanted to do.

Mr. SWYGERT. Thank you very much.

If I may, I would like to extend on behalf of the entire Howard

University family our special thanks to Representative Juanita

Millender-McDonald, and our thanks as well to Representative J.C.

Watts. Congressman Watts has been a frequent visitor to our campus. We very much appreciate his initiative as well.

Mr. Chairman, when I was invited to appear here today, I felt

privileged to know that I would be a key spokesperson on behalf

of the University’s student body, alumni, faculty, and extended

family on an issue that deeply touches the hearts of all of us, as

well as the hearts of those generations of individuals whose lives

have been so significantly impacted by the Freedmen’s Bureau. Indeed, its historical and emotional aspects are significant.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, in 1866, Howard University was

named after General Oliver Otis Howard, who was the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Since its inception, Howard University’s historical relationship with the U.S. Congress has traversed 134 years; and we continue to enjoy this relationship, a relationship that began and grew out of the Freedmen’s Bureau. So, in

some larger sense, Mr. Chairman, you are seeing a product, live

and in person, of the continuing and enduring legacy of the Freedmen’s Bureau itself.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to accomplish three things. I would

like to first speak to the immediacy, the impact of the records

themselves as it relates to the African American community and its

definition of self. Second, as you have already heard and will continue to hear as this continues, these are primary documents that

are irreplaceable.

Third, Mr. Chairman, I am here to assure you that African

Americans and all Americans celebrate and cheer this effort. As to

the definition of self and as to the definition of people, as the Congresswoman has already indicated, if you don’t know where you’ve

come from, you certainly will not be able to figure out where you

are headed. These documents, Mr. Chairman, help with that issue

and more. They give proof positive of the vitality, of the energy, of

the hopes, and prayers, and aspirations of people who have recently been enslaved. They continue to speak with relevance and

passion to issues of today.

It is, therefore, a matter of both great emotional concern to us,

historical importance and, most importantly perhaps as well, Mr.

Chairman, they confirm and reaffirm that persons who were only

recently freed were persons who were freed and continued to maintain a whole human spirit.

10

The second issue I would like to share with you, Mr. Chairman,

is based upon my experience as a Howard University history student. Like Mr. George, I too am a graduate of Howard University,

and an alumnus of the undergraduate school and the School of

Law. It was my privilege to be a history major at Howard University, and in that capacity we were taught a number of principles.

A number of principles were shared with us.

One of the first principles of course was to distinguish secondary

from primary sources. And primary sources, as you know, Mr.

Chairman, tend to be closer to the historical truth than not. When

one surveys the documents that are found within the collection

known as the Freedmen’s Bureau Collection, one sees primary

sources in the form of letters and testimonials and first person narratives that ring true. They rang true more than 100 years ago and

they continue to ring true today. These documents are irreplaceable. But, there is an urgency, Mr. Chairman, an urgency that we

get about the very serious business of preservation of these documents.

Mr. Chairman, I said a moment ago that the African American

community, and indeed all Americans, will celebrate and are cheering this effort. I mean that in all sincerity. This is about African

American history and American history. I think sometimes, Mr.

Chairman, our focus is too narrow and our definition too narrow

as well. This is American history. It is a history that we can all

look back upon and celebrate because it tells us where we have

been as a people, as a nation, and where we have come from, and

we have come a mighty long way. I think there is cause to celebrate and I think it will be celebrated and cheered by us all.

Before I conclude my formal remarks, and I have submitted my

remarks for the record, I would like to speak to one issue in particular in terms of the way and the manner in which the records

continue to be maintained and handled. The records have been

safeguarded by the National Archives and Records Administration

and generally made available to the American people. However,

Mr. Chairman, I am concerned that people who want access to

these records encounter undue difficulties in getting to the information that they seek. The records are too complex if one seeks to

identify names and locations of people. The guides for accessing the

levels of records and the variety of information embedded in the

records need improvement to become more user friendly.

The Congresswoman spoke to this issue in the context of the

Internet. I see three areas of improvement. First, put all available

inventories on-line in the NARA Web site. Currently there are four

inventories that describe these records, an inventory for the headquarters of Washington and three volumes for the field offices

which cover the former Confederate and border States. I have been

informed that the latter three volumes can only be found with the

main NARA office in Washington, DC, although some efforts have

been made to send them to the regional archives offices.

Second, the microfilming needs to be continued with a selective

process in place. Currently records that pertain to education for

some States and records of the assistant commissioner for a few

States are microfilmed. I have been informed that the Freedmen’s

Bureau records are voluminous, and some of the more bureaucratic

11

records may not need microfilming. However, these records which

contain information on people and events should receive high priority.

Last, there needs to be a comprehensive name and subject index

for the entire record group. There are many small indices that pertain to individual record series, and these are helpful. For example,

in the headquarters records of Washington, DC, there are several

indices and registers of letters, but in the field offices there are too

few indices to assist people in their research process. Reports often

come with no indices, and the volume of records precludes any systematic searches. I believe comprehensive index systems for each

State where Bureau officials operate can provide directions for individuals to search names and subject.

Again, Mr. Chairman, I speak with enthusiasm for this legislation. I celebrate with you. I applaud you and your colleagues for

this initiative, and if I may respond in part to the last question

posed to the Congresswoman, I think the HBCU community has

the capacity today, certainly Howard University has the capacity to

participate in appropriate pilot programs with appropriate oversight and assessment, and we would be prepared to do so with enthusiasm.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Swygert follows:]

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Mr. HORN. We thank you, and I might add when I introduce you,

your full statement is put in the record. The staff and we, when

we get back to town, we read them all prior to the—in this day and

age prior to the hearing starting, and we have fine testimony from

all of you on such short notice. Next is Dr. Thomas C. Battle.

Mr. BATTLE. Mr. Chairman, I don’t have any prepared records,

but I would like to speak to the importance of preserving primary

documents. These are the kinds of materials which are essential to

research of all kinds. The Nation has recently undertaken legislation to celebrate, to document, and to preserve those issues related

to the Underground Railroad. That was a very important effort.

I would think that looking at the transition into freedom, sort of

a domestic Marshal Plan, which the Freedmen’s Bureau was about,

that preserving these records and offering them for research to

scholars is vitally important to understanding all of the American

experience. The Civil War continues to be a subject of very major

interest throughout our Nation. And as we have looked at the Underground Railroad and looked at the Civil War, it is important for

us to preserve these records that are important to the reconstruction of our Nation, and I would urge in continuing the efforts of the

National Archives that we provide whatever support is necessary

to ensure that these records are preserved for the future.

Mr. HORN. What has been your experience with various libraries

in the States, with the National Archives, etc? How do you feel

about where the possibility should be to use these? It is probably

going to be a mix of all sorts of things.

Mr. BATTLE. It is going to be a mix. The interest in this research

and genealogy is a nationwide interest. Certainly there is detrimental effect when scholars have to travel to a sole source when

the opportunity exists to distribute them to a wider audience. I

think we could benefit from scholarship pursued in that manner.

Certainly a centralized location is beneficial, but the distribution of

materials is what we should be about today.

Mr. HORN. I think with the Internet they are right at our fingertips, if we can get it into a data form that any citizen could get in

their home or library, or even their high school libraries, would be

important. And, of course, we do have Federal depositories, as we

all know, in almost every congressional district in the land and

that would be another possibility to put it in. Sometimes even

though they are Federal depositories, they are under city or county

or State and some of them are much better put to use than some

of the others. So, if we want to have this, I think the Internet is

one solution; but we have to get to the raw data before they expire.

When I heard what our staff found, and some of the records really

were pitiful, we need to deal with that.

So, I thank you, Dr. Battle, for your insight. We now go to the

next witness, Elizabeth Clarke Lewis, Director of the Public History Project at Howard University.

Ms. LEWIS. Good morning. Very briefly, I would like to say we

thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. In addition,

I would like to remind all of us as a historian that there is a world

of history to be discovered in these records. This was a moment in

time in which people were walking out of slavery and into new opportunities, and their voices moved from the margins to the center

20

in these records, and it is critical for us to put into place the apparatus, for us to not only hear these voices but understand the

words that they were saying.

I would like to add that this was a time when people were also

walking into history, that the Federal Government was interceding

to help former slaves as well as non-former slaves acquire land and

move forward and modernize the Nation.

We understand without question that the textures of the interior

worlds of people are very important. These records allow us to create linkages between those internal worlds and the external developments and movements of the larger world. These records are significant because they create without question a strong foundation

for us to understand families, local history, regional changes, as

well as the apparatus of a Nation put into place for lands that were

given to individuals of non-African descent, free lands that were

made available to them as refugees also.

As has been stated, these records truly are American history and

they reflect the history of this country in a manner that is very,

very unusual and important. Thank you very much.

Mr. HORN. Well, thank you very much.

We have a few questions for this panel before we move to the

third panel, and I take it by my previous question to you, Dr.

Swygert, that Howard University would be interested in participating in——

Mr. SWYGERT. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if I may, in

terms of capacity to participate in a pilot program, we have invested a significant amount of resources in the past several years

to build up our IT, or information technology infrastructure, both

in terms of hardware, software, wiring the campus, and in terms

of recruitment and retention of both faculty and staff who can manage the technology.

We think we are suited for this purpose for three relevant reasons. The first is that when you look at Howard University, as I

said in my opening remarks, Mr. Chairman, you are literally viewing the progeny of the Freedmen’s Bureau itself. We think, to the

extent that there should be some consideration given in terms of

the historical relationship, that pertains.

Second, we have many, many decades of management of very,

very sensitive, fragile, irreplaceable documents in the form of the

Mooreland-Spingarn collection that Dr. Battle heads at the university, and we take that charge very seriously.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, we are a research university. Howard

University, under the old Carnegie classification system, was

known as a research 1 university. In the new Carnegie classification system, we are known as a doctoral intensive university, which

is the highest ranking for these purposes that a university might

obtain. We have the doctoral programs, we have the faculty, the

students, and the physical facilities, and now we have the technology to participate.

Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would urge if at all possible, that you

find some way and some opportunity to further encourage us to

pursue this pilot program idea initiative. We very much appreciate

that.

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Mr. HORN. Well, I think, as you heard me ask the author of the

legislation, you have got choices here of the archives itself, the archives pilot projects, and here we have the example of the University of Florida, which had a grant to preserve and index a few of

the Freedmen’s Bureau records, but it isn’t a very total approach.

Then of course, the money that goes to, and we have expanded that

hopefully with the Appropriation Committees, is the National Historical Public Records Commission, which has worked on this type

of pilot throughout the United States in the preservation of records.

I am just fishing for what is out there and what are the possibilities when you write legislation so that we don’t exclude or overly

include. That is what I am looking at.

I might ask you, Dr. Battle, what type of records are in the

Spingarn collection?

Mr. BATTLE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to share

this with you. We were founded in 1914. We celebrate more than

85 years of service in documenting Black history and culture. We

consider ourselves the largest and most comprehensive repository

of this kind in the world. We are generally considered the library

of last resort. Roughly that means when you can’t find it at the Library of Congress, you come to us. We are one of the largest manuscript archivals of this kind.

We tend not to enumerate the quantities in the collection, but

our library collections are well over 200,000 volumes, there are well

over 100,000 images in our photographic collections, our manuscript and archival collections would extend some 30 miles or so if

we were to try to articulate materials in that way. We are one of

the most comprehensive centers of documenting all aspects of the

Black experience in this Nation. We sometimes say that we predate

Black History Month and the organization that founded it. Howard

University has collected such historical information since the first

days of its existence. Our library collection is based upon the Louis

Tachnach slavery collection, which documents the experiences of

African people during that turbulent period in our history.

We, in addition to the range of resources that we have, you may

also be interested in knowing that for the last year, in our second

year of publication of what we call HUarchives.net, this is undertaken to provide us with the opportunity to share in a broader

fashion the vast resources of Mooreland-Spingarn Research Center.

We have done so while trying to address the needs not simply of

university level and scholars, but students and teachers in the Kthrough–12 range as well. We think that we are very qualified in

the field that we endeavor in terms of preservation of Black history.

Mr. SWYGERT. HUarchives.net is a pilot, Mr. Chairman, if you

will, that is funded in part by MCI WorldCom, and it is a reflection

of that partnership between private sector and a research university to accomplish a public good, and we are very proud of that relationship and the work that has been done over the past year or

so.

Second, Mr. Chairman, I would respectfully request an opportunity to supplement my written testimony with a written response

to your inquiry regarding ways and means of effectuating the purposes of the legislation.

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Mr. HORN. Without objection, that will be put at this point in the

hearing record.

Mr. SWYGERT. Thank you, sir.

Mr. HORN. You are quite welcome. Remind me who Spingarn

was?

Mr. BATTLE. He was an attorney, a bibliophile. It was his life’s

passion, and he set out in a worldwide search to find and to collect

every volume written by a person of African descent. To the extent

that he was successful, his collection is one of the major collections

of such rarities that is in existence. Jesse Mooreland was a graduate and alumnus of Howard whose collection was donated in 1914

with the intention that Howard University would be the foundation

of the study of Black life, and history, and culture in the United

States, throughout the Americas and throughout the African diaspore, including Africa itself.

Mr. SWYGERT. Mr. Chairman, just as another point regarding the

Mooreland-Spingarn collection, a significant amount of the research

that preceded the Steven Spielberg ‘‘Amistad’’ story took place at

the Mooreland-Spingarn collection. So, when Dr. Battle speaks of

documentation and records, he speaks with real authority among

his peers and scholars. It is a great, great respository that is part

of the definition of Howard University.

I am often asked, Mr. Chairman, how do you define the university? Well, you begin in two places. Your faculty and your library.

We have a great faculty and a great library and a great collection

at Mooreland-Spingarn.

Mr. HORN. What is that Website address?

Mr. SWYGERT. It is www.howarduniversity.edu for the university.

Mr. BATTLE. And Mooreland-Spingarn would simply precede

Howard University.

Mr. HORN. I want to make sure.

Mr. BATTLE. It is HUarchives.net, that is one word, although separation in spacing, dot Howard.edu.

Mr. HORN. Do you have any questions?

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. Chairman, I simply want to

thank the president of Howard University and these other two fine

professors and persons who have come from that very distinguished

university to really give us a further insight as to what the depth

of Howard University’s research department is.

Mr. HORN. It is. It seems too natural that you would have a pilot

program of the Freedmen’s Bureau records. You certainly are located here in Washington, DC. Folks come to your university to get

that kind of research, and to have this type of historical perspective

and material is just natural. I would like to pitch for a pilot program to be there.

I agree with you, Doctor, that your historical background, given

that General Howard himself, who the university is named after,

and the whole notion of Dr. Battle and his research program, Dr.

Lewis, I guess I feel so overwhelmed this morning to know that we

have such great experts out there who are willing to help us further this whole project of getting this information out to our younger kids, and I call them kids because I am so much older, but the

folks in colleges and universities across this Nation. I would simply

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say thank you for your input. I have noted those things of importance that you have said today.

Dr. Swygert, I want to ask, on your campus do you have genealogy research groups or student groups that would be interested in

a such a pilot program?

Mr. SWYGERT. Oh, yes. Many, both State-related groups at Howard University. We have a history of students, undergraduate and

graduate who identify by State, so there is a Georgia society on

campus, there is a Texas society on campus, a Florida society and

our largest—California is our largest. We also, of course, have faculty and staff who, in addition to Dr. Battle, both the department

of history and elsewhere have demonstrated expertise, and I think

would welcome this with enthusiasm. At Howard University it is

personal. This is a definition of the very institution that I am privileged to represent. So, to say that there would be enthusiasm on

our campus would be a gross understatement. There would be a

tremendous celebration.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I can certainly attest to that. Dr.

Swygert, if you would help me to get this word across to other

presidents and to carry this throughout the Nation, that indeed we

have something that is important to America and to African Americans. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HORN. Thank you. We thank you for all of the work that you

have put into this. Did any of you have a chance to look through

the actual draft, H.R. 5157, and do you have any suggestions to

make to that because we are going to move this very rapidly?

Mr. SWYGERT. We have no suggestions this morning, but we will

be working up some comments, Mr. Chairman, in addition to the

supplement that I mentioned a moment ago. But the outline of the

legislation is right on target and well drafted and very well focused.

Mr. HORN. Could you draft it by the end of the day?

Mr. SWYGERT. We will have something for you——

Mr. HORN. On the bill?

Mr. SWYGERT. Absolutely.

Mr. HORN. We will move this tomorrow morning and hopefully

the full committee and move it to the floor.

Mr. SWYGERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HORN. The only other one that I have moved this fast was

when I was trying to save the National Academy of Sciences.

Mr. SWYGERT. Thank you. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to speak before you today.

Mr. HORN. Thank you very much. We now will go to the third

panel. The third panel is Reginald Washington, African American

genealogy subject area specialist, National Archives and Records

Administration, Mr. Michael Kurtz, Assistant Archivist of the

United States for Records Services, National Archives and Records

Administration; Professor Tony Burroughs, adjunct professor of

genealogy Chicago State University, and Henry Wiencek, resident

fellow, Virginia foundation for the humanities. If you will stand to

be sworn.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. HORN. We will start with Reginald Washington.

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STATEMENTS OF REGINALD WASHINGTON, AFRICAN AMERICAN GENEALOGY SUBJECT AREA SPECIALIST, NATIONAL

ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION; MICHAEL

KURTZ, ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES FOR

RECORDS SERVICES, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS

ADMINISTRATION; PROFESSOR TONY BURROUGHS, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF GENEALOGY, CHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY; AND HENRY WIENCEK, RESIDENT FELLOW, VIRGINIA FOUNDATION FOR THE HUMANITIES

Mr. WASHINGTON. I would like to begin, Mr. Chairman, by

thanking you for inviting me this morning to testify on the need

to preserve and increase the accessibility of the records of Bureau

of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. As the subject area

expert in African American genealogy for the Office of Records

Services, Washington, DC, I fully recognize the importance of the

Bureau’s records, and I appreciate the committee’s interest in

them. I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the

hearings today.

The records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, are

among the most important primary resources for the study of the

African American experience during slavery and freedom. The

Freedmen’s Bureau records document the African American community’s struggle for freedom and equality, and provide insight

into the Federal Government’s policies toward the nearly 4 million

Blacks released from bondage at the close of the American Civil

War.

While a major part of the Bureau’s early activities include the

supervision of abandoned and confiscated property, its mission was

to provide relief and to help freedmen to become self sufficient. To

accomplish these goals, the Bureau issued rations and clothing, operated hospitals and refugee camps and supervised labor contracts

between planters and freedmen. The Bureau also managed apprenticeship disputes and complaints, assisted benevolent societies, and

established schools, helped legalize marriages, and provided transportation to refugees and freedmen who were attempting to reunite

with family or relocate to other parts of the country. As Congress

extended the life of the Bureau, it added other duties, such as assisting Black soldiers and their heirs in obtaining back pay, bounty

payments, and pensions. In carrying out all of these activities, the

Bureau collected information about freedmen and their families.

I’ve brought along copies of several examples of Bureau documents

that illustrate the types of information collected.

Mr. HORN. We would certainly like you to file them with the

record. Go ahead and make a summary and put the rounder part

of it in the record at this point.

Mr. WASHINGTON. The documents that I brought today, one is

certainly a marriage certificate. I brought along a labor contract

agreement and also a marriage register and one other document I

brought today was a plantation census.

Mr. Chairman, for decades, historians, social scientists, and

other scholars have used Freedmen’s Bureau records to study social

and economic conditions and the Federal Government’s involvement in education in the Black community during reconstruction.

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In recent years, however, a growing number of African American

genealogists and family historians have discovered the value of

Freedmen’s Bureau records for family research and have begun

wading through them in search of information about ancestors and

local history. Some collected records of the Bureau have been

microfilmed, but, in general these do not include many records of

the local field offices where most individual freedmen came in contact with the Bureau. Many researchers who attempt to use the

field office records become frustrated when they discover that they

must travel to Washington to use them. Their frustration continues

when they find that the records are voluminous and lack useful

name indexes.

Fortunately, we have been successful in forming some partnerships that are enabling us to address the frustrations of users of

the Freedmen’s Bureau field office records. One of these partnerships involves the special collections library of the University of

Florida; and we are using it as a pilot to confirm requirements for

processing records prior to filming and to examine the feasibility of

producing an automated name index. The project involves the filming of some 41 series of records of the Florida field office of the

Freedmen’s Bureau, totaling more than 12,000 images.

To test the indexing possibilities, NARA has developed a data

base to collect index entries and is training members of its volunteer Civil War Conservation Corps to populate the data base by extracting names from the Florida series that are most likely to yield

information about individual freedom. The University of Florida is

funding the filming and NARA volunteers are doing the indexing,

but any number of other divisions of labor are possible, and NARA

also envisions partnerships where funds for filming originate with

the government and private partners contribute indexing support.

This concludes my prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. If you or

other members of the subcommittee have any questions, I would be

happy to address them.

Mr. HORN. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Washington follows:]

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Mr. HORN. Our next witness is Michael J. Kurtz.

Mr. KURTZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, it is good to be back with

this committee.

Among other things, one of my most important jobs is that I am

responsible for the custody and use of the Freedmen’s Bureau

records that my colleague Mr. Washington has just described.

When I was a young archivist, one of my first projects was working

with Freedmen’s Bureau records, so this brings me back around to

the beginning.

On behalf of the National Archives, I want to thank Congresswoman Millender-McDonald, and Congressman Watts for introducing the Freedmen’s Bureau Preservation Act of 2000. It is very consistent with the mission and goals of the National Archives, and we

support the bill very enthusiastically. We always welcome any congressional interest to preserve and make available archival records,

particularly these valuable records which Mr. Washington, President Swygert and others have described so well today.

We have the records in a stable environment, but with increasing

use, their fragile condition really requires the steps that are called

for in this bill. We have prepared—in preparation for this effort, we

have identified approximately 1.3 million pages of material that

need to be microfilmed. It would cost approximately $1.5 million.

All of this of course is beyond the current budget and resource—— Mr. HORN. I want to be very clear. Are those records that you

already have or is that an estimate of the records out there in the

field?

Mr. KURTZ. These are all Freedmen’s Bureau records which have

been described at the State and county levels which have the most

important genealogical name information. It covers all of that for

all 11 states.

Mr. HORN. And you say basically that boils down to 11⁄2 million

items?

Mr. KURTZ. 1.3 million pages, $1.5 million.

Mr. HORN. OK.

Mr. KURTZ. We prepared all of this earlier this summer when we

were working with Congresswoman Millender-McDonald in preparation for this effort.

A couple of points raised by Dr. Swygert, which I think are very

important. The finding aids, we are in the process of putting them

up on the NARA Web, and that should be completed soon.

Mr. HORN. What do you mean by ‘‘narrow Web’’?

Mr. KURTZ. Our Web site. It is the NARA, the National Archives

Website.

Also we are very pleased to hear from Dr. Swygert of the interest

of Howard University in performing as a potential partner. We

think that for the indexing part of this process, it is critical to have

partners. As you noted, Mr. Chairman, the NHPRC does do grants.

There was a grant made to the Florida State Historical Society

which regranted to the University of Florida for the project that we

are now engaged in with them for this pilot project. That certainly

is one possible way to go.

The pilot project is critical because we really need to understand

what standards we need to have, what kind of time and resource

constraints. So, forming these pilot projects with the various uniVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:59 Oct 15, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\75060.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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versities, particularly Howard University, would be a very important way to go. I would also like to note in closing that we will be

working very closely with your staff today on some changes in the

bill with regards to funding, I think clarifying the authorization for

funding and also putting in—suggesting language to make it clear

about the partnerships and the various ways to go about doing that

for the indexing and getting the information on the Internet.

Mr. HORN. Let me pursue that point. We have the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Do you think this

project here and the $1.5 million in terms of how we would take

those partnership suggestions around the country, would that be by

a new unit in the archives or would it be left to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission?

Mr. KURTZ. The $1.5 million is required for the microfilming.

That is the first step that has to happen. It is the purpose of the

pilot project with Florida to come up with what the standards and

the costs would be to do name indexing, and from gathering that

data, it would enable us to begin working with various university

partners in this effort. So, at this point, I don’t have a dollar estimate.

Mr. HORN. When will Florida complete the pilot so we can have

these figures in a fiscal sense?

Mr. KURTZ. I need to check on that for you. We are ready to

begin filming it, and we have developed the data base that we need

for the indexing pilot. I need to get the information when that part

will be completed.

Mr. HORN. When did that pilot start?

Mr. KURTZ. Our Civil War Conservation Corps that Regie Washington mentioned has completed all of the preparation for the

microfilming, so the microfilming is about to begin any day now.

That should take about 60 days or so to do the microfilming. We

have to get some information for you on exactly when the indexing

part of this will be completed, and we will do so.

Mr. HORN. I want to put in the record at this point some of the

typical documents that our staff and staff director have from these

records. One here is rules on the actual slave at the time and another one is the Amnesty Oath, it would be Mississippi residence,

but you can see that in the records. And then from the Bureau of

Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, the marriage certificate, and then it tells man and wife and the name children are a

legitimate issue of. And then we have a list of the burials for the

month of September 1865.

This reminded me, when I started looking at those documents,

of the wonderful project that came out of your legislative section

of the Archives on Thomas Jefferson where the documents look exactly like it was in Jefferson’s day, and also women’s suffrage.

Now, those are the only two I know of like that. Are there others?

Mr. KURTZ. They are working on one on a history of Congress

project. That is our third major one.

Mr. HORN. Good. But it is really wonderful when children in

school—elementary, intermediate, high school, universities, colleges, whatever—when you see these documents, the history comes

home to you.

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Mr. KURTZ. I will be sure to pass that on to the Archivist, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr. HORN. So these will be put in the record. They can do that

at the Government Printing Office. We have a little trouble of what

you can do down there or what you can’t, so I think those can be

easily duplicated in our hearing.

Mr. KURTZ. Just one other point, to pick up on what was previously said. As these records are microfilmed and so forth, we intend to put them in our regional archives. We intend to, I think,

followup your idea about the depository library. Also, we have a

microfilm rental program. All of this would be in addition to eventually what gets indexed and put on the Internet, other sources of

access.

I would like to close, Mr. Chairman, by saying that I believe this

will be the final time that, due to the chairman’s term limits provisions, that we will have the opportunity to testify before you. We

want to thank you for your great help and leadership with the National Archives.

Mr. HORN. Well, thank you very much. We have enjoyed working

with you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kurtz follows:]

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Mr. HORN. Our next presenter is Professor Tony Burroughs, adjunct professor of genealogy, Chicago State University.

Mr. BURROUGHS. Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman McDonald and

members of the committee, thank you very, very much for the invitation to say a few words in support of H.R. 5157, the Freedmen’s

Bureau Record Preservation Act of 2000. I am very honored to be

here today.

According to surveys conducted this year by Maritz Marketing,

60 percent of all Americans over the age of 18 are interested in

doing genealogical research. Other surveys indicate that genealogy

is one of the most popular interests and activities on the Internet.

These surveys are consistent with numbers reported by the National Archives indicating that 85 percent of all users of the Archives are researching their family history. Being the only invited

full-time, professional genealogist on this witness panel today, I

represent those 85 percent of researchers using the National Archives as well as 60 percent of all Americans.

Specifically for African Americans, I have just published this

book, Black Roots, a Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree, which will be Simon & Schusters’ lead book in

Black History Month, to prepare beginners to get more fundamental background in doing their family history.

I have delivered dozens of lectures at national conferences and

local workshops around the United States and Canada in the last

10 years that either instruct researchers on how to use Freedmen’s

Bureau records or lectures that include Freedmen’s Bureau records

among other records that I discuss.

Seeing the excitement on genealogists’ faces once they learn of

these rare records and then their almost immediate frustration

when they learn that most have not been microfilmed and they

have to travel to Washington to view them is like watching the old

commercials on the Wide World of Sports describing ‘‘the thrill of

victory and the agony of defeat,’’ all in a matter of seconds.

Because of the age, the quality and the quantity of these records,

they are extremely valuable to both African American and also

White genealogists. I have devoted 25 percent of instructional text

in this book, the African American Genealogical Sourcebook, to researching records from the Freedmen’s Bureau so people know

what to do before they come to Washington.

I explain 14 different record series with genealogical and historical value, many of which have already been mentioned, but including apprenticeship records; census lists and registers; marriage

records, among the most valuable because they often contain the

only record of a slave marriage and sometimes includes the names

of children; labor contracts; transportation records; education

records, which chronicle the beginning of Black colleges; supervision of 850,000 acres of abandoned land, including leases, sales,

and restorations; food rations; and hospital records, which are extremely valuable because they often contain the only record of an

ancestor’s death—I have seen hundreds of deaths in hospital

records due to contagious diseases, epidemics and poor sanitary

conditions; complaints, outrages and murders; and the Freedmen’s

Bureau supervised trials. There was a tremendous amount of corVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:59 Oct 15, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\75060.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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respondence; there are Civil War Veteran Claims; and a few miscellaneous records, including births, deaths, and cemetery records.

Almost all of these records contain names of both African Americans as well as White Americans, many being Bureau agents,

teachers, doctors, chaplains, ministers, government employees, laborers, former slave owners, refugees from the Civil War, the sick

and the indigent, landowners and Civil War veterans. In addition

to the 15 States covered by the Bureau’s services, some left home

from other States to work for the Bureau, or attend one of the

schools. Others received Bureau assistance to return to home and

to work outside of Bureau-controlled States, so it covers more than

the 15 areas that the Bureau controlled.

The most challenging problem facing African American genealogists is identifying the name of the former slave owner, vital to extend genealogical research prior to 1865. My own unpublished research shows that, out of over 5,000 cases, only 15 percent of

former slaves used the name of the last slave owner. Therefore, I

instruct researchers to search for records where the former slave

indicates the name of his or her former slave owner. Some of the

best sources are records from the Freedmen’s Bureau that were

created during this transition from slavery to freedom.

In addition to discovering their ancestors, some genealogists have

made larger contributions to society. Belzora Cheatham, president

of the African American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago, located letters written to the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1868

which assisted her in getting the first State historical marker dedicated to African Americans in Cass County, TX. The unveiling of

her historical marker for Whittaker Memorial Cemetery was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather’s Eye on America in 1996.

Some of the Bureau records are now 135 years old and in poor

condition. In addition to deteriorating paper, ink is fading from

some of the pages and will undoubtedly be a challenge to microfilm.

Of the few records of the Freedmen’s Bureau that have been

microfilmed, 75 percent were microfilmed prior to the 1977 airing

of the television miniseries ‘‘Roots’’ by Alex Haley, which resulted

in an explosion of Americans researching their family history.

Records from the Bureau that were microfilmed pertained mainly

to reports, correspondence, and education items related to the history of the Bureau and to education of African Americans, not to

genealogy.

Professor Ira Berlin and his Freedom and Southern Society

Project at the University of Maryland was able to select 40,000 documents from the National Archives to transcribe and publish, including some from the Freedmen’s Bureau. But he was able to do

this because he was only a Metro ride away from the documents.

What about those thousands of us that live hundreds and thousands of miles away from Washington, DC? If these records are

microfilmed, thousands of genealogists will not only have access to

the materials, they can also begin to transcribe records that hold

missing puzzles to their ancestors’ lives, while other genealogists

can begin new studies that will contribute to the humanities.

I have been at the National Archives on many occasions when researchers located their ancestors. The joy and exultation they exVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:59 Oct 15, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\75060.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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hibit is sometimes overwhelming. It is very exciting for me to share

in their excitement. It is what keeps me teaching over the years.

Records from the Freedmen’s Bureau are unique because they

are not only used by academic scholars, they are used by average

Americans searching for their roots. The records include African

Americans, White Americans, poor Americans, rich Americans—in

fact, all Americans. Descendants of people named in the records

probably live now in all 50 States.

It was the Congress of the United States that created the Bureau

of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in 1865. Now, 135

years later, we are once again relying on you, the Congress of the

United States, to preserve the Bureau’s records and its legacy.

I would like to close with two points, one, that I have been working with archivists from the United States in Chicago, Washington,

Philadelphia, and Kansas City, and I must say that they do an excellent job, and they are some of the finest civil servants that I

have seen. However, they are underutilized, they need more resources to do the job they are doing.

I would also like to say that I have worked with the effort to

index the U.S. Colored Troops Project that is now on the Internet

that was championed by the National Park Service as well as the

Federation of Genealogical Societies where we garnered thousands

of genealogists around the country to index these records and make

them available to the Internet, and I am willing to offer that service again if it is needed by the committee. Thank you.

Mr. HORN. Thank you. That is very fascinating testimony; and

we appreciate you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Burroughs follows:]

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Mr. HORN. Let me ask you, you have heard some of the choices

of the pilot projects, the Florida project, do it with the Archives,

etc. Do you have any advice for us on that of how this, given the

immensity of records in parts of the Nation and how we get microfilm equipment—I have just finished going through about 40 years

of a newspaper, and one’s eyes do get tired after a while. Then the

problem is, when you have delicate, fragile records, that they make

sure that they get a good picture of it somehow; and usually the

thing is going like this for some archival documents, even after

they are on microfilm. They just didn’t focus it. They were just

rushing through. So what can you tell us about that?

Mr. BURROUGHS. I agree with all of the things that have been

previously mentioned. I think that, historically, Black colleges are

an excellent source to try to utilize some of this. I would not leave

out the Historical Records Preservation Committee and the efforts

that they have done. I think they have done a fine job with a lot

of the documentary history projects they have done, particularly

the one by the Freedom and Southern Society Project, so I would

not overlook that in terms of actually transcribing some of the

records, in addition to making name indexes. So I don’t know if

there is time to look into that, but there is a precedent that is set

by that, so I would not overlook that. Again, there are thousands

and thousands of genealogists around the country that would be

very willing to help in this effort.

Mr. HORN. Well, thank you. Do you have a question for this witness, and then we will go to—— Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. Burroughs, you certainly have

given some very interesting and informative information and testimony on your background and how intense you have been in trying

to preserve and to recover I suppose more information. It is interesting to know that 60 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are

interested in genealogy. It is just amazing. You tend to think you

might be one of those who are in just a little hole alone, as I

thought I was, just really being interested in this, but it is great

to know this as well. I would be interested to know how many of

those 60 percent are African Americans, if that is a breakdown that

we can get.

Mr. BURROUGHS. I was afraid that question was going to come

up. I have not seen statistics on that, and the Maritz Marketing

that compiled those statistics, I don’t know if they have racial

breakdowns of those. I do know that I have seen a growing interest

in the numbers of African Americans doing genealogy. I have been

tracking, on an informal basis of the numbers of African American

genealogical societies that have been growing around the country,

and now there are more than 50 genealogical societies spread out

throughout the United States, and those numbers are growing.

The 60 percent of all Americans, that number is up from 5 years

ago when it was 45 percent of all Americans. So I have talked with

representatives from the National Archives, and they do not compile statistics by race either, but they have indicated to me that the

numbers of African Americans are growing just like everybody else

is growing.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. That is interesting, given the fact

that we see more and more in our communities at family reunions

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and, in doing so, the family tends to want to now know from

whence they have come and whether or not Alabama is really the

first, I guess, point of origin of the family or wherever—outside of,

of course, Africa. But they want to know whether they have come

from the southern part of Africa, the west part or whatever, and

it is important that we continue to move the Bureau of Records

whereby one can begin to do that.

I did that when I had to speak in front of my family reunions,

and I went through the Mormon’s records to find that and found

that we really—the name Millender, the name McDonald, and we

recognize those names and where they have come from, but you

just really tend to go as far back. And it went back to Africa and

then down to Portugal. So, it is amazing how I came all the way

up through all of that area in trying to find, really, my roots. So

it was quite interesting.

The other thing I wanted to ask you was—— Mr. BURROUGHS. Excuse me, if I could interrupt you for a brief

second to followup on the point that you are making, this book, the

African American Genealogical Sourcebook that was published by

Gale Research, was the first major publication in 15 years when it

came out in 1995. After it has come out, within the last 5 years,

several commercial publishers have come out with books on African

American genealogy. So, if the commercial publishers are interested and they are publishing books, then obviously there is a tremendous demand and interest there.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Well taken and well said. I would

like to get those books that you have displayed today.

Mr. BURROUGHS. Sure.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Did I write it correctly, the National

Archives Preservation Committee? What is the—— Mr. BURROUGHS. What is the correct name of the historic preservation committee?

Mr. HORN. It is the National Historical Publications and Records

Commission.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. So that is one that comes through

our National Archives and not one that is independent of them; am

I correct? Is this an interest—— Mr. HORN. It is in cooperation with the Archives?

Mr. KURTZ. The Archivist is the chair of the Commission, and it

is administratively organized and managed by the National Archives.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. OK, fine. I just wanted to get a

clear understanding of where they integrate.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HORN. That leads to another question. Besides the Freedmen’s records, what are some of the other records that might also

be relevant to the emancipation of the slaves? Are they in county

courthouses somewhere buried beyond the Freedmen’s material

that we obviously want? What is out there besides that? If you take

a microfilm machine around to a county courthouse, maybe there

are also some other records you want.

Mr. WASHINGTON. Well, Mr. Chairman, in terms of Federal

records, there is also the Freedmen’s Bank records that are available at the National Archives. Freedmen’s Bank was established on

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the same day that the Bureau was established, although it was established as a private institution. When the bank failed, of course

the Federal Government stepped in, the Comptroller of the Currency and so forth, to liquidate the assets and so forth. But the

Freedmen’s Bank records are also a body of records that are useful

for African American family research.

One of the efforts of the officials of the bank was to determine

when a person opened up an account, who their family members

were. So, you find information about aunts, uncles, fathers, brothers, sisters, and all of that information is in there.

Again, I should point out that institution was established in

1865, so a lot of the information you find in those bank records are

prior to the 1870 census, where all African Americans are initially

being documented by name and so forth.

So, they become extremely important records, and they work

closely with the Freedmen’s Bureau, and many of the people who

are depositing money there thought they were a part of the Freedmen’s Bureau, but they are a separate body of records.

Also, I have been working a good deal on some records called the

Commission of Claims, also known as the Southern Claims Commission. This is a commission that was established in 1871 where

persons who had property taken from them by the Union soldiers

who, when they moved throughout the areas, had an opportunity

to seek compensation from this commission, from the Federal Government. And some of these individuals who were filing for claims

were, believe it or not, former slaves and freed Blacks. Not only

that, those records, there were some 220,000 witnesses.

In many cases, when you find persons serving as witnesses for

Blacks who are filing claims, these witnesses are family members.

Also, when you find many of the Whites who made up the majority

of the people filing claims, many of the witnesses were their former

slaves. And when you ultimately go through those documents, you

are finding what these people are saying, this person was my

former slave owner. And as Tony pointed out, one of the key efforts

in doing African American genealogy is to find out, if your ancestors were former slaves, who the slave owner was. You need to find

as much information about the slave-owning family as you do your

own family. So these kinds of records, Federal records, provide that

kind of information.

On the level of the local level, obviously, at some point, people

are going to have to do research. African Americans are going to

have to do research at these local levels, look at wills and probate

records, deed books where information was created by the slaveowning families. And you can find this information sometimes,

where they purchased these individuals, you might find information where slaves have been bequeathed to family members and all

sorts of documents. You might find assessment lists in a probate

record where they not only list the furniture and the other items

that are owned by these individuals but you also find the names

of the slaves they owned and certainly the cost and other information about them.

So, certainly African American genealogical research involves

using Federal records and also these local records that are created

in the States and the county courthouses.

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Mr. HORN. Well said.

Dr. Kurtz, I am curious, besides microfilm, do we now have scanning devices that could get some of these records into a computer

base?

Mr. KURTZ. Yes, we do, Mr. Chairman. Always we microfilm because that is the long-term preservation medium, but we have been

working again with building partnerships with various parts of the

private sector to get records scanned and made available through

digital imagery.

Mr. HORN. On the scanning from the microfilm then, can you

move it onto a disk that preserves it?

Mr. KURTZ. Yes, you can.

Mr. HORN. How long does the standard microfilm tape last?

Mr. KURTZ. Well, actually, the preservation medium is the microfilm. There are really no archival preservation standards at this

point for digital imagery. They are still being developed with the

technology and the industry. So whenever we use digital imagery

and so forth in scanning and images, it is purely for the purposes

of access and accessibility. It is really not for preservation. I am

sure in the next couple of years this will be settled and the standards will be developed, but they don’t exist right now.

Mr. HORN. Well, when we talk about 1.3 million pages and a cost of $1.5 million for the microfilm, do we need to also think about

disks that would keep it permanent when the rest of this is either

in a vault somewhere in a cave in some States and universities.

How much really are we talking about, $3 million basically?

Mr. KURTZ. I am really not able to comment on that.

Mr. HORN. I would think so. Well, we will start with that. We

will see if we can get away with $3 million.

Mr. KURTZ. One of the things, too, I would like to supplement a

little bit about, what Regie Washington shared in the National Archives here in Washington there are many records, military records

that have information about African Americans, Treasury Department records. For instance, I think it is the third auditor of the

Treasury Department, you find all of the records related to compensated emancipation here in the District. I used those records

many years ago in a publication, and they are a rich source of information.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. Chairman, let me just ask Mr.

Washington, your comments on the Freedmen’s Bank records, the

Commission of Claims records and now Dr. Kurtz saying the military Treasury records, that would be quite an integration of

records, and it would seem to me like at one time, at one point, we

need to look at integrating that and cross-referencing that. Because

if you have just one segment of these remarkable records as in the

Freedmen Bureau, we certainly need to finish that off with all of

the other records that will be a cross-reference to and for cross-purposes, it seems to me. I would like to perhaps have you and Mr.

Washington and Mr. Kurtz to look at the cost factor of that. Because that, to me, seems to be the next step, not at this juncture,

Mr. Chairman, but perhaps at another one, that we can start looking at an integration of all of those records.

Mr. KURTZ. Congresswoman, I think that you are making a very

good point, because I think what we really need to do is, beginning

45

with what we are planning to do at this point, develop a strategy

that kind of moves onward and outward dealing with what is most

productive and useful, identifying what is lesser, making those

cost-benefit decisions and whether it is worth it and have a strategy that goes beyond the Freedmen’s Bureau, that has to be our

first step, I think.

Mr. HORN. I would like to now move to our last presenter. His

responses will be along the line of a lot of the questions we have

already asked, but I wanted to get some of the administrative questions into the record, and then what Mr. Henry Wiencek has done

is really quite exciting. He is a resident fellow in the Virginia

Foundation for the Humanities.

We are glad to have you here. Please give us the answers to

some of the ones we have already had answers on, because you

have lived through this, so tell us about it.

Mr. WIENCEK. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for inviting

me here today to testify on something that is really extremely important. I can testify firsthand as to both the importance of what

you are proposing and also to the insane difficulty that descends

upon any researcher who tries to use these records. So, anything

we can do to ameliorate that will be most welcome.

I would like to address, first of all, a larger question, which is

the importance of genealogy. I think that some people have the perspective that it is something almost purely private and almost an

avocation. But, as a professional writer and historian, I think I can

tell you that we are on the edge of a new era in history where we

will make much more extensive use of genealogies than we have

in the past.

I am beginning to see how all of these individual strands that

families have been laboriously constructing over the last couple of

decades can be put together to form tapestries that show us the

trajectory of a community, the trajectory of the rise of a race, and

we are just now reaching the point where we will have the critical

mass of individual family research where we can begin to put it together.

I have been asked to consult with Colonial Williamsburg on a

project called Forever Here; where they are trying to get a better

view of what slavery was like in Williamsburg. And to whom are

they turning? They are looking to genealogists, to family historians

among the families of the people who were enslaved there. They

are actively seeking out slave descendants to find out: ‘‘What have

you found out about your family? What can you share with us in

terms of oral history, in terms of documentation, in terms of family

trees? What happened to these people after they became free? We

need to know that.’’

In my next project, I am doing a book on George Washington.

Some of the first people I consulted with were African American

genealogists. I got in touch with people, and some of them came to

me when they found out what I was working on. I am seeking out

descendants of Washington slaves. How can you understand Washington unless you understand his slaves, unless you understand

the community in which he lived? He lived in a highly integrated

community, and his slaves had an impact on him. I am trying to

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get at the larger question of why he didn’t finish the revolution

when he had a chance and set the slaves free.

I am finding fascinating new information from family historians,

people who have been tracing their roots back to Mount Vernon

and other Washington and Custis plantations, very quietly gathering up the documents that paint a fascinating picture of what

Washington’s household was like. We are getting information that

we would never find from mainstream historians.

In a similar vein, the Freedmen’s Bureau records are an extremely important link in this chain for people doing that kind of

research. I am going to use those records even in relation to George

Washington. Because at the moment the Civil War ended, there

were a great many former Washington slaves at Mount Vernon,

and they were—I know that they had almost daily interactions

with the Federal army, and I am expecting to find some very interesting information in the Freedmen’s Bureau records about conditions at Mount Vernon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those

slaves have something to say about family relationships that existed then in 1865 that will tell me about family relationships in

1795.

That is the way it works. You take every shard of evidence you

can find from those records and then trace it back, and I had a

great deal of success with that in my book ‘‘The Hairstons.’’

The other point I would like to make is that I think a lot of people look upon these records and see their importance primarily in

terms of African American history, and of course that is supremely

important. But, the other thing is, these are some of the best

records we have for southern, local and regional history, period.

Now, Tip O’Neill famously said, all politics is local. I have come

to believe that, to a great extent, all history is local and that we

really cannot hope to begin to understand the history of this country until we understand the history of our communities. It is only

when you put a microscope on a region that you begin to see certain things leap out. You begin to see the establishment of businesses and farms and churches and schools, and you begin to see

really the deepest fabric of American life, and that is only when

you look at these places under a microscope from a local perspective. I know from experience that these Freedmen’s Bureau records

are, in many cases, the best records we have for local history in

that crucial period of emancipation and its aftermath.

Now, as I mentioned, I made extensive use of these records, and

it nearly drove me insane. I worked with the records of four States:

Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee. They vary

greatly in their organization. In some areas I found records that

were very deep, because the local officers were diligent and kept a

wide variety of records and were careful about sending them all

into headquarters; and in other areas you will just find the most

perfunctory monthly records and in order to get additional information you have to dig really deeply.

But, I would make an appeal to you when you are considering

how to organize these records to give special attention to indexing

them by locality. I think that will be a supremely important element.

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I wrote a book on the Hairstons, a family who lived in a certain

group of counties, mainly in Virginia and North Carolina; and it

drove me crazy to try to isolate the Freedmen’s Bureau materials

that dealt with those regions. The method I finally came up with

is that I went through all of the monthly reports that were filed

generically and I made a list of all of the names of the officers and

subassistant officers, whoever signed a report having to do with

those areas; and then I went back to the so-called registers of letters with that long list of names and copied out all of the index entries for each of those officers and then went back to the letters

and read all of those letters and then looked for asterisks on the

letters that would indicate that there was another letter somewhere else cross filed.

It went on forever, and there was no central index that would

allow me to go and find—if you wanted to find out what happened

in Richmond, a very important place, you couldn’t do it without laboriously going through this process, which would take you weeks

and weeks and weeks. I think that would be a supremely important contribution, if we could index these by locality.

To that end, I think that—you mentioned the partnership with

Florida. I think it would be wonderful if the Archives could get in

touch with researchers in every State where there was a Freedmen’s Bureau in operation, just get in touch with the major universities there and say to them, go into your own archives for the last

50 years and tell us which historians have done dissertations and

theses and other kinds of papers on the Freedmen’s Bureau. What

have they done, what did they find, and send that to us so that we

can begin to put together a massive bibliography of research on the

Bureau.

The other thing is I would hire local researchers in each State

and say, go through the records that are available on microfilm and

make us sort of a county by county rough survey. What kind of

records did they turn in? How good are they?

I am not talking about doing an index, just a quick survey to let

us know what is there in a very preliminary way.

Mr. HORN. Well, a good example are the WPA records of the

1940’s. Have they been helpful to you? State by State.

Mr. WIENCEK. Yes. I used the WPA records. Some of the originals are housed at the Library of Virginia in the State archives,

and I used some of the records here, in the National Archives. I

also made extensive use of the ex-slave interviews that were done

during the 1930’s and 1940’s. See, that material is filed geographically, so it is very easy to get at.

And even though the Freedmen’s Bureau records are filed State

by State, once you get within boundaries of the State, the ground

falls away beneath you. There is just so much material. As I said,

if you wanted to find out about what happened in Richmond, you

couldn’t do it without weeks of research, just to locate where to

begin.

Mr. HORN. Well, as I get it, Dr. Kurtz, first we have to get at

the records, we have to microfilm them, and then we have to get

them in a computer situation where you can have name, locality,

and all the rest to solve your problem on weeks going there, Mr.

Wiencek. I can suffer with you on a lot of research I have done,

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and that takes a long time. So, if we can manipulate it after you

get the base record, why, I think that would be very helpful.

Mr. WIENCEK. If I could make one brief comment, the chairman

alluded before to education. If these records were more available

and indexed in a rational way, they would be a tremendous educational tool for high school and college students across the country

who wish to work with primary sources. In studying a period of extreme importance and ambiguity, if you would give advanced high

school and college students the chance to work with these original

records and say, all right, go in and pick a region, find out everything you can about it and tell me what happened to the Blacks?

What happened to the Whites? What experiences did they report?

What did the government do? Just based on these primary documents.

And then assign them to go a little bit beyond that, maybe get

in touch with the local historical society or assign someone to settle

down with a local newspaper and say, well, here we have reports

of atrocities committed against the Black people. What did the

newspapers say? Did they report it at all? Or how did they slant

the news?

Assign someone else to go into a collection of letters from that

region and find out, well, what were the planter families saying

about conditions? How did their assessments match up with what

we are finding in these records?

It would be a tremendous educational resource. It is difficult to

teach that period, I think. The Civil War is exciting, and the period

right after is hard to get at. I think if you did it through these primary documents, it would really come alive for students.

Mr. HORN. Well, you are absolutely right. The southern revisionists certainly didn’t want to talk about reconstruction.

Mr. WIENCEK. No.

Mr. HORN. So, a lot of that just disappeared. It would be fascinating to see if anything was even said in a newspaper that related to activity of jailed slaves or whatever.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Wiencek follows:]

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50

51

52

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Mr. HORN. Dr. Kurtz, is it possible then where indexing could be

helping these researchers in terms of the locality and different

things to get at them from—I think it is exciting, if you had students in Richmond, VA, and Long Beach, CA, there would be a lot

of things to learn from others. Because, in a lot of our cities in

southern California—I have one city that is 85 percent, for example, Hispanic. I have another city where part of it would be about

70 percent African American. And my colleague here who authored

this bill, she has a heavy African American population in parts of

her district. That would be a very interesting thing on the Internet

for high school students to be talking to each other around the

country.

Mr. KURTZ. Mr. Chairman, let me ask our expert, and I would

like to say that our agency is fortunate to have an expert of the

caliber of Regie Washington with us. Regie.

Mr. WASHINGTON. I just want to comment on the university efforts and, just like Howard was saying, if you have universities involved in a project—once you have the material filmed, that is the

key, getting the material filmed. Once you have it filmed, if a university purchases the microfilm, they have a huge tool of laborers

in students and you can utilize these students in terms of having

them go in and do the indexing projects and, at the same time,

they are beginning to learn about the Freedmen’s Bureau which— I got a call the other day and people hadn’t even heard of the

Freedmen’s Bureau. So, here you have an opportunity of a huge

labor pool to go in and do the indexing, identify those series that

are conducive to finding information about individuals, utilizing

these students to go in. At the same time, they are using primary

sources; at the same time, they are learning about the Freedmen’s

Bureau; and, at the same time, they are doing a good service for

the African American community and the genealogical community,

historical community as well. So, I am intrigued by the idea of

using universities as a pool to get that kind of operation done.

Mr. KURTZ. I think also in the indexing, responding to your question, Mr. Chairman, yes, I think the locality aspect of the information would be very important to capture. I mean, I think it would

be essential, actually. It wouldn’t make any sense without it.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. Chairman, I think as the chairman and I, both representing California, look at the demographics,

they change; and it is so important that we do this on a locality

basis to see from whence the L.A. County was and now it has

grown exponentially, the minority, just to see what happened then,

what happened now. I think for students, being a former teacher

myself, it would be incredibly important. I think it is intriguing to

have students begin this process of look at what happened, whether the newspaper had anything on it, all of those other facets that

Dr. Wiencek talked about, because then we will have students becoming more involved in this process, more involved in the historical aspects of not only the African Americans but the American history in general. I think that is when we can then perhaps tap them

to become more involved in the political process and what we are

doing.

I think all of this has such a revolving interest for all of us.

Thank you.

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Mr. HORN. Let me ask about another category that comes to

mind, and that is the church records of birth, marriage, and the

county records of death, etc. To what degree does that apply to a

lot of the African mission? I think there were churches strictly African American after the Civil War was over, and I don’t know if

those records have been looked at, but it seems to me that is another valuable record.

Mr. WIENCEK. Those records are actually very endangered. A lot

of them are in private hands. What I have run across is that I will

contact a church and they will say we have records going back to

the 1940’s and we don’t know anything before that. And then I will

make some phone calls and I will find out that the granddaughter

of the church member has the records going back to the 1870’s because her grandfather had been entrusted with them by a pastor

at some point and took them home, and they never got back to the

church. And this happens all the time. So, it takes a lot of detective

work to find some of these records, and they are very, very endangered, because no one knows where they are.

Mr. HORN. Yes.

Mr. BURROUGHS. If I could followup on that. Some of the most

vital records for doing genealogy are records of birth, marriage, and

death—birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses and

marriage records. For most of the areas that we are talking about,

particularly in the south, many of those records didn’t exist until

the 20th century. So when you look at the 19th century, the

records in the Freedmen’s Bureau that pertain to marriage and

death and birth are some very, very rare records that you just cannot get anywhere else. So you are able to extend your research into

the 19th century, because many of those areas didn’t have those

records until much later.

Mr. HORN. Interesting. How about plantation records? What has

happened to them? Do they just get burned or taken north, or

what?

Mr. BURROUGHS. Well, fortunately, the University Publications of

America have microfilmed 1,500 reels of plantation records. Those

have been available to scholars at academic libraries and some

public libraries and historical societies around the country. That

was a 10-year project that was just concluded this year, so that is

a very, very voluminous collection. There are some plantation

records within the Freedmen’s Bureau on a small basis where the

Freedmen’s Bureau took over plantations and then took former

slaves to work those plantations and were paid for the first time.

So, there are huge numbers of plantations records that are available on microfilm.

Mr. WIENCEK. I got a call this week from an architect in central

Virginia who said she was working on the renovation of a rural

house, an old rural house, and they broke open a wall and out tumbled bundles of records from slavery time. And they said, can you

come take a look at these and let us know if there is some importance to them? I said, you bet.

Two weeks ago I was at a plantation that is in the Washington

family and they said, oh, you may be interested in seeing this and

they pulled out a ledger from the 1850’s that listed slaves being

paid for certain jobs and the birth of a slave child. I said, does anyVerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:59 Oct 15, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\75060.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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body know about this? And they said, oh, no, it is just in the family. So I have let the University of Virginia know about the existence of that.

There are many, untold thousands of plantation records that are

still in private hands and embedded in walls or locked in trunks

that no one knows about it.

Mr. HORN. Fascinating. You have to be a detective in this business.

Mr. WASHINGTON. Mr. Chairman, if I could just comment, one of

the documents that I brought today that is in one of the bound volumes is a census of plantations from the Freedmen’s Bureau of

Records where individuals were working on these government plantations and, of course, you can see the names of the individuals and

it also lists the names of the former owners. You might want to

take a look at that document to get an idea of some of the kinds

of plantation types of records you might find in Freedmen’s Bureau

of Records.

Mr. HORN. I am a book collector and I look at a lot of book catalogs and I see occasionally documents of the 1840’s, 1830’s, 1810’s,

slaves and so forth, and there is a price on that when the dealer

is selling it. I am curious, when you find a wall of records, does

that family want to turn them over to a university or the Archives?

What kind of incentives can we put out there to get those materials

where scholars can have access to them?

Mr. WIENCEK. My impression is that they want them to end up

at a university and to be made available to researchers everywhere. After I look at the records, I am going to see if UVA is interested and then take it from there.

Mr. HORN. Does my colleague have any other questions?

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I do not. Thank you so much for this

hearing.

Mr. HORN. Well, you did a great job of bringing it up to us.

Let me just see the changes in the language, if any. Well, I

thought that we did it with everybody. So, just let us know if there

is something that we need by the end of today in terms of looking

at the legislation and get it in to Mr. George, and we will see if

we need to put it in tomorrow with full committee.

Mr. KURTZ. Thank you for that opportunity. We will, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HORN. OK. Thank you.

I think we have covered every question we have here.

So, let me thank the staff that put this together.

The gentleman to my left, that Howard graduate you heard

about from the president, he has been anointed now in public as

well as going across the stage, J. Russell George, the very distinguished staff director and chief counsel of this subcommittee; and

he has also had great help from Earl Pierce, our professional staff

member right behind him, who has gone and looked at a lot of

these records; our director of communications, Bonnie Heald, is

also back there; and then our faithful clerk, Elizabeth Seong; and

our intern, George Frazer, they are working somewhere here; and

Dr. Pearl-Alice Marsh of Ms. Millender-McDonald’s staff, who has

done a lot of work on this, and I think she is right back here.

56

And then the democratic counsel, Trey Henderson, is always

helpful and represents the ranking member, whoever it is for the

day; and Jean Gosa, minority clerk, who knows everybody and all

sorts of things. The court reporters, Doreen Dotzler and Julie

Bryan have been with us this morning. So we thank you all for

your role in this.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Mr. Chairman, just let me say, you

can see how thorough he is. He has really included everyone who

was a part of this today. Let me just compliment you, Mr. Chairman, on how thorough you were in recognizing all of the folks who

have such a critical part in playing a role in this piece of legislation. Again, I thank you for bringing it to your committee, thanking

all of the staff persons, especially my senior policy advisor, Dr.

Pearl-Alice Marsh, who has done extensive research on this issue.

Thank you.

Mr. HORN. Well, I thank the gentlewoman from California; and

with those happy words, we will adjourn.

[Whereupon, at 11:50 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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