North Carolina, Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner Records, 1862-1870

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1909 Records of the Field Offices for the State of North Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands which is part of Record Group 105 Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. The images are generally arranged in the order the records were microfilmed with the records of the Assistant Commissioner who oversaw Bureau operations in the state and state level staff officers; Superintendent of Education, Inspector, Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Surgeon, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number. Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Hospitals were established by the Freedmen’s Bureau in Raleigh, Newberne, Beaufort, Roanoke Island, Kinston, Wilmington, Salisbury and Charlotte. Smallpox hospitals were also established in Beaufort, New Bern, Raleigh, Greensboro and Wilmington.

Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names A table listing where the North Carolina field offices were located, the names of the employees, what office they held, and the dates they served can be found at Freedmen's Bureau North Carolina Field Office.

Military Districts

On March 2, 1867 Congress created five military districts in the Southern States. Some of the records of these military districts found in Record Group 393 may relate to records of the Freedmen's Bureau. The links below to the National Archives Catalog will provide a history of the second district and links to record descriptions.

• War Department. Second Military District. 3/11/1867-7/28/1868 North Carolina, South Carolina
• Reports of Outrages, 1865-1867. NAID 4746080
• Trimonthly Reports Received of Rations Issued to the Destitute in North and South Carolina, 5/1867-12/1867. NAID 4746100

General Information about Freedmen's Bureau Records

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in the War Department in March of 1865. It was commonly called the Freedman’s Bureau and was responsible for the management and supervision of matters relating to refuges, freedmen, and abandoned lands. The Bureau assisted disenfranchised Americans, primarily African Americans, with temporal, legal and financial matters, with the intent of helping people to become self-sufficient. Matters handled included the distributing of food and clothing; operating temporary medical facilities; acquiring back pay, bounty payments, and pensions; facilitating the creation of schools, including the founding of Howard University; reuniting family members; handling marriages; and providing banking services. Banking services were provided by the establishment of the Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company, or Freedman’s Bank.

The Bureau functioned as an agency of the War Department from approximately June 1865 until December 1868. In 1872, the functions of the Bureau were transferred to the Freedmen’s Branch of the Adjutant General’s Office. The Bureau assisted over one million African Americans, including many of the nearly four million emancipated slaves, which was over 25% of the population of former slaves in America. The records identify those who sought help from the Bureau at the end of the Civil War. Most supplicants were freed slaves, some of which were military veterans. In addition, a few veterans who were not African Americans also sought help from the Bureau. Freedmen’s Bureau records are usually reliable, because the records were supplied through first-person correspondence or the recording of a marriage.

Related Articles

• "Let Freedom Ring", Dr. Shelly Viola Murphy, Family Tree Magazine, 23 # 3 (May-June 2022): 50-56 FS Library periodical 973 D25ft
• "A Window into the lives of black and white ancestors: Freedmen's Bureau field office records", Sharon Batiste Gillins, NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): 34-38 FS Library periodical 973 D25ngs
• "Navigating Freedmen's Bureau Records for Research Success", Sharon Batiste Gillins, NGS Magazine 47 #2 (April-June 2021): 27-35. FS Library periodical 973 D25ngs

National Museum of African American History & Culture

The museum is working with the Smithsonian Transcription Center and volunteers to transcribe the records of the Bureau.

• Freedmen's Bureau Transcription Project.
• About The Freedmen's Bureau Database Records
• FREEDMEN'S BUREAU ABBREVIATIONS, STAFF ROSTERS, AND STYLE SHEETS
• Freedmen's Bureau - Browse Projects

Related National Archives Collections

• Report of Plantation Leased by D. Keaton and Ora O. Kelsea NAID: 595060
• War Department. Post at Goldsboro, North Carolina. 1865-1869
• Letters Sent by, Decision of, and Testimony Taken by the Assistant Superintendent of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, July 1865–May 1866, NAID 656290

To Browse These Collections

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for North Carolina, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1863-1872.

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for North Carolina, Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner Records, 1862-1870.

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1867 Hospital Record

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  1868 Register of Destitute Freedmen

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  1865 Register of Destitute Freedmen Clothing Sales

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  1865 Land Restoration

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  1869 Appointment Revocation

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  Employment and Transportation Contract (page 1)

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  1866 Index Freedmen's Bureau Letters

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  1867 Freedmen's Bureau Letter

• NARA Select Images from Freedmen's Bureau Records

Record Types

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) created many different record types necessary to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions. These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads. See Freedmen's Bureau Record Types for a description of the record types found in Freedmen’s Bureau collections.

Officer's Manual The War Department published an Officer's Manual to assist bureau personnel in the records that were required to be keep in bureau offices.

• United States, National Archives, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual

The following Wiki articles are transcriptions of portions of the manual

• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - I, Book Keeping and Official Correspondence
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - IV, Medical Department
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - V, Subsistence
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - VI, Miscellaneous Provisions - Includes Reports from Assistant Commissioners

Inventory

Collection descriptions for the browse images may be located in either the published National Archives preliminary inventory with the "Entry No." or the National Archives Catalog Online Public Access Catalog "OPA." with the National Archives Identifier "NAID" number. To see the inventory, click on the following link. Inventory