Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872

What is in This Collection?

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War 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.

This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1907 Records of the Field Offices for the State of Mississippi, 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 state level staff officers; Superintendent of Education, Assistant Inspector General, Disbursing Officer and Quartermaster, Surgeon in Chief, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

• Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names

A table listing where the Mississippi 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 Mississippi Field Office Personnel.

The state Districts, under Sub-Commissioners as of March 1866

• District of Columbus: Tippah, Tishomingo, Pontotoc, Itawamba, Chickasaw, Monroe, Oktibbeha and Lowndes Counties. HQ Columbus
• District of Meridian: Winston, Noxubee, Neshoba, Kemper, Newton, Lauderdale, Jasper, Clark, Jones and Wayne Counties. HQ Meridian
• District of Jackson: Hinds, Copiah, Simpson, Smith, Scott, Rankin, Leake, Madison, Attala and Holmes Counties. HQ Jackson
• District of Brookhaven: Lawrence, Pike, Amite, Covington, and Marion Counties. HQ at Brookhaven
• District of Natchez: Adams, Wilkinson, Franklin, and Jefferson Counties. HQ at Natchez
• District of Pass Christian: Perry, Green, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties: HQ at Pass Christian
• District of Vicksburg: Warren, Claiborne, Yazoo, Issaquena, Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, Coahoma and Tunica Counties. HQ at Vicksburg
• District of Grenada: Carroll, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Calhoun, Panola, Lafayette, Desoto and Marshall Counties. HQ at Grenada

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 fourth district and links to record descriptions.

• War Department. Fourth Military District. 3/11/1867-3/16/1869 Arkansas, Mississippi
• Final Report and List of Registration of Voters in Mississippi, 1867. NAID 1768509.

Related Collections

• War Department. Post of Meridian, Mississippi. Office of the Quartermaster
• Orders for Transportation Furnished, October 1865–October 1865 Includes some letters received from the Freedmen's Bureau requesting transportation for refugees.

• Department of the Mississippi. Office of the Provost Marshall
• Register of Freedmen, ca. 1864–ca. 1865 NAID 5054542

• Department of the Cumberland. Subdistrict of Mississippi
• Register of Former Slaves, 1864 ?–1867 ? NAID 5049654

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.

For details about the contents of these records, their history, and help using them, see the wiki article: United States Freedmen’s Bureau Records - FamilySearch Historical Records.

Related Articles

• Dr. Shelly Viola Murphy, Let Freedom Ring Family Tree Magazine 23 # 3 (May-June 2022): 50-56. FS Library 973 D25ft V23. Issue 3
• Sharon Batiste Gillins.A Window into the lives of black and white ancestors: Freedmen's Bureau field office records. NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): 34-38.
• Sharon Batiste Gillins. Navigating Freedmen's Bureau Records for Research Success NGS Magazine 47 #2 (April-June 2021): 27- 35.

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

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Collection Content

Sample Images

• Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Record Examples
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  1865 Special Order

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  1866 Monthly Operation Report

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  1866 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.

• The following links will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen's Bureau collections. Freedmen's Bureau Record Types

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

See Also

• Col. Samuel Thomas. Digest of Orders and Instructions to Sub-Commissioners. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Mississippi, Vicksburg: Freedmen's Bureau Press Print, 1866

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