Records Relating to Freedmen's Labor
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, 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.M999, Series 16
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: There are two series of records relating to freedmen's labor. Indentures of apprenticeship, December 1865–February 1868, arranged chronologically, are preprinted or handwritten forms given pertinent data concerning the contracted parties, dates of apprenticeship, and including a statement of the obligations and responsibilities of each party. The second series consists of labor contracts, January 1, 1865–January 1, 1868, arranged in two subseries. The first subseries contains contracts in which both contracting parties were from Tennessee and is arranged alphabetically by county and thereunder chronologically. The contracts state the obligations and responsibilities of the contracting parties and give dates and other terms of employment. All work situations are represented, including sharecropping, factory labor, and domestic help. Included also in this subseries are contracts between landowners and the Federal Government by which landowners agreed to hire a certain number of freedmen in lieu of repaying a Government debt. The second subseries consists of contracts similar to those in the first subseries except that they are between freedmen from Tennessee and employers from other States. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by State, thereunder alphabetically by county, and thereunder chronologically. Some of the contracts also include the transportation arrangements provided for the freedmen. Included at the end of this subseries are four contracts between Tennessee employers and freedmen from other States, arranged alphabetically by employer.