Lunenburg County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1869

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

Freedmen's Bureau Apprenticeship Indentures and Freedmen's Contracts, 1865-1867, are digitized and available through Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions

Preferred citation:

Lunenburg County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1869. Local government records collection, Lunenburg County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Creator:
Lunenburg County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Lunenburg County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1869. Local government records collection, Lunenburg County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Lunenburg County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1869, consists of Freedmen's Bureau Apprenticeship Indentures, 1865-1867; Freedmen's Contracts, 1865-1866; and various correspondence and records, 1865-1868.

Apprenticeship Bonds and Indentures, 1865-1867, consist of twenty-seven indentures which record the binding of Black and multiracial children to individuals for the purpose of learning a trade. Both are contractual agreements between the indenture holder and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau. They stipulate the amount the indenture holder agreed to pay to the Freedmen's Bureau in exchange for the child to be bound to them by the Freedmen's Bureau; length of apprenticeship; and a statement of the obligations and responsibilities of each party. Information found in the apprenticeship indentures include names of the indenture holder and Freedmen's Bureau agents, bond amount, date of indenture, names and age of the apprentice, and name of trade.

Freedmen's Contracts, 1865-1866, consist of a little over 300 (2 boxes) employment contracts between formerly enslaved Black and multiracial individuals and their employers. Contracts usually specify the dates of the expected employment, the occupation of the employee, expected wages and housing arrangements and any rent that is to be paid to the employer.

Various correspondence and records, 1867-1869, related to the activities of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Military Districts, and the Lunenburg County Court. These records include the following:

Circular [printed], 1867 May 28, of General Order No. 31, noting the role of Military Commissioners in keeping local order.

Circular, 1867 June 6, in which Brevet Captain D. J. Connolly announced his assumption of the office of Military Commissioner for the counties of Nottoway and Lunenburg.

Circular, 1867, concerning the impending regulation of the local court to "protect the Freedmen in their rights of person & property" and ensure the impartial treatment of all.

Letter, 1867, to the County Court of Lunenburg from D. J. Connolly requesting that the County Jailor receive and feed prisoners committed by Connolly, and that the court set aside a room for him to conduct the business of his court.

Letter, 1867, to Brevet Brigadier General A. P. Blunt from Brevet Major J. R. Stone, both officials of the Freedmen’s Bureau, regarding "a bill for Government horse shoeing in Lunenburg Co. in the year 1865."

Petition [copy], 1869, of the Bar and the Lunenburg County Court requesting that the "disabilities" of W. W. Webb as clerk be removed.

Resolutions, 1867, related to D. J. Connolly’s circular. The Lunenburg County Court disputed the "assumed hostility of the whites toward the colored people."

Resolutions, 1867, of the Lunenburg County court related to General Schofield and his duties as Commandant of a military district that included Lunenburg.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type:

Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

On March 3, 1865, the federal government created The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands using the Freedmen's Bureau Bill. Also known as the "Freedmen's Bureau," this agency was responsible for aiding refugees of the Civil War, especially formerly enslaved people in the areas of education, employment, and health care. Meant to last for only one year after the war, the Bureau was largely operational from June 1865 to December 1868, and officially abolished in 1872.

Freedmen's Contracts

Local offices of the Freedmen's Bureau assisted in drawing up contracts between formerly enslaved people and employers. These contracts were meant to ensure that the formerly enslaved were accorded fair and legal work contracts that included precise terms of employment. However, because many formerly enslaved people were forced to enter into arrangements with former enslavers, arrangements could be largely ignored or abused. They eventually morphed into sharecropping and debt peonage. Contracts usually specify the dates of the expected employment, the occupation of the employee, expected wages and housing arrangements, and any rent that was to be paid to the employer. These records were generated by the federal government and therefore many are housed in the National Archives, however a few localities retained possession of these records in their courthouses after the dissolution of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1872.

Freedmen's Apprenticeship Indentures

In the fall of 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau assumed responsibility as the governing body for apprenticeship indentures and oversaw the binding out of children of formerly enslaved people to indenture holders. Although these contracts were generated by the federal government, a few localities retained possession and they were filed in the courthouse as Freedmen's Bureau records. They typically contain the name of the person or institution binding out, the person to whom bound, the name of the person being indentured, the length of the apprenticeship, and the responsibilities of the person taking on the indenture.

Locality History:Lunenburg County was named for George II, duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, a German possession of the Hanoverian kings of England. It was formed from Brunswick County in 1745.

Acquisition information:

Freedmen's Bureau Apprenticeship Indentures were transferred to the Library of Virginia from Lunenburg County (Va.) in 2006 under accession 42852.

Other Freedmen's Bureau records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court records from Lunenburg County (Va.) as part of an undated accession.

Processing information:

Lunenburg County (Va) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Records were previously described in Lunenburg County (Va.) Freedmen's Contracts, 1865-1866, and Lunenburg County (Va.) Apprenticeship Bonds and Indentures, 1865-1867. These were combined with other Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Records for the locality in 2024 to enhance the context between the various records.

Nottoway County (Va.) Freedmen's Bureau Apprenticeship Indentures, 1866-1867, were previous housed and described with the Lunenburg County (Va.) Apprenticeship Bonds and Indentures, 1865-1867, now described in Lunenburg County (Va) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Records. For unknown reasons, these records, were filed in Lunenburg County and mistakenly identified as orphans bonds because most of the African American children indentured were orphans. Lunenburg County and Nottoway County were in the same military district following the Civil War. The military authority was headquartered in Lunenburg County courthouse.

These records have been scanned and indexed by L. Neuroth and other LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

Encoded by A. Simpson, 2009; updated by M. Mason, February 2024

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged

  • Series I: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1869, arranged loosely by record type then chronologically

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
1.1 cubic feet (4 boxes)