Records Relating to Confiscated and Abandoned Lands
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M1027, Series 8
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Six series of records relating to confiscated and abandoned lands are reproduced in this series: three sets of monthly reports of confiscated and abandoned lands prepared by the Assistant Commissioner, his staff officers, and Bureau agents in the field; a register of applications of freedmen for land; registers of applications of former owners for restoration of their property; and the Assistant Commissioner's monthly reports of property returned to owners.

The first three sub-series are closely related monthly reports of confiscated and abandoned lands: (1) retained copies of the Assistant Commissioner's reports, August 13–December 31, 1865, and January 31, 1867–December 31, 1868; (2) reports received from subordinate staff officers, September–November 1865 and January 1867–February 1868; and (3) reports received from Bureau agents, September–December 1865 and July 31, 1868. The first and third sub-series are arranged chronologically; the second sub-series is arranged by staff department and thereunder chronologically. The retained copies in the first sub-series are based on information contained in the last two. A typical entry in any of the three sub-series reveals the name of the former owner; locates the property; reflects the increase or decrease of property size since the last report; states the reasons why the property was designated as abandoned or confiscated; and provides a description of the property, including the acreage or size, type of crops and acreage under cultivation (for rural property), or the number and type of buildings.