Reports of Rations Issued and Related Records
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of North Carolina Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M843, Series 11
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Three of the series are unbound statistical reports submitted, for the most part, on printed forms. These include monthly and quarterly reports of rations issued by subordinate officers, August 1865–December 1868; retained copies of semimonthly, monthly, and quarterly rations reports prepared by the Assistant Commissioner, September 1865–November 1868; and miscellaneous ration reports of subordinate officers, July 1865–December 1868. All are arranged chronologically.

The statistical monthly and quarterly rations reports of subordinate officers list the number of rations issued, the number of people given rations, the number of births and deaths, and other statistics. These reports generally concern camps, colonies, and hospitals operated by the Bureau in North Carolina.

Retained copies of rations reports of the Assistant Commissioner are mostly monthly reports that summarize the same type of information as the above reports, but for the various subdivisions of the State of North Carolina.

The miscellaneous trimonthly, monthly, and quarterly rations reports are from subordinates officers who reported the clothing, rations, and medicine issued and other statistics.

In addition, there are several brief series of reports or records relating to subsistence rations, rations issued, and destitution. Receipts for rations issued by the Bureau to persons, December 1866–July 1867, are arranged chronologically. These list the color of the person, the number in the family, the amount of rations, and the date, and include the signatures of those receiving rations. The abstract of subsistence stores received and issued by subordinate officers, December 1866–June 1868, are arranged chronologically and indicate how much corn and pork was on hand or issued and whether issued to whites or blacks.

A few narrative reports on destitution, August–October 1867, and January–June 1868, are arranged chronologically and recount destitution in the subdistricts reporting. These reports indicate, in particular, whether the county boards of wardens were able to cope with the problem of destitution and provide needed relief. At last, chronologically arranged, miscellaneous series of reports of destitution of 1866 lists some landowners who needed seet to plant crops and some people who needed relief.