United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872

What is in This Collection?

Index of records to rations including registers and applications for rations, certificates of destitution for the issuance of rations, lists of destitute or indigents to whom rations were issued or lists of rations issued, registers of freedmen receiving rations, registers of ration returns and other supplies provided to refugees and freedmen by the Freedmen's Bureau. For additional information on rations as described in the Freedmen's Bureau Officer's Manual see the section on subsistence. US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - V, Subsistence

For additional information on the collections in this publication see United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records - Inventory and United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records, Part II - Inventory.

Records from the field offices are from the following states

• Alabama (M1900), rolls 3, 15, 31
• Arkansas (M1901), rolls 9, 18, 22
• Kentucky (M1904), roll 132
• Louisiana (M1905), rolls 63, 67, 71, 78, 83, 84, 87, 92, 95, 110
• Mississippi (M1907), roll 31
• North Carolina (M1909), rolls 20, 32, 42, 51, 64, 74, 76
• South Carolina (M1910), rolls 21, 25, 26, 37-39, 52, 59, 63, 64, 73, 76, 79, 95, 99, 106
• Virginia (M1913), rolls 37-40, 51, 109, 111, 115, 127, 146, 147, 159, 172, 192, 198, 202

Records of the Assistant Commissioner

• Arkansas (M979), rolls 31-34
• District of Columbia (M1055), roll 15-17

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.

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

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

What Can These Records Tell Me?

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. The following important information is often found in Bureau records:

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1867 Rations List

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  Rations Register

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  1866-8 Rations Report

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. For a description of record types in this and other Freedmen’s Bureau collections see 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.

• Officer's Manual. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Washington. 1866. Digital Images

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 - V, Subsistence
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - VI, Miscellaneous Provisions - Includes Reports from Assistant Commissioners

Inventory

For a list of all the titles included in this Historical Records publication see United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records - Inventory. For additional content see United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records, Part II - Inventory.

Digital Folder Number List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records Digital Folder Number List.