Records Relating to Destitute Freedmen and Refugees
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for State of Virginia, 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.M1048, Series 8
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: There are one series of reports and three series of lists relating to the condition of destitute freedmen and refugees. The series of narrative reports from Bureau field officers (describing the financial and logistical plans of local boards of overseers of the poor to meet the needs of destitute freedmen living within their jurisdiction), March 24–June 14, 1866, are arranged chronologically. The reports were submitted by local boards to the appropriate district assistant superintendent as required by circular 12, issued by the Assistant Commissioner, March 21, 1866.

The remaining three series are monthly lists of destitute freedmen and whites and are as follows: (1) Lists of destitute freedmen, arranged by district and undated, except for one dated October 26, 1865. Each district list is further subdivided by counties included in the district and provides the name, age, sex, and former home of the destitute freedmen. An undated report at the beginning of the series lists the counties and districts in the state and the names of destitute freedmen receiving government rations. (2) Monthly lists of destitute whites, May–September 1866, reveal the destitute whites in each district and the amount of rations needed to sustain them. (3) Monthly lists of unemployed freedmen, March 1866–December 1868, are arranged chronologically. The lists were sent to the assistant superintendents in compliance with circular 1, issued by the Assistant Commissioner, January 1, 1866.