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Dr. Antoinette Harrell reviewing records on a plantation
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr. |
Genealogists and family historians understand the terminology leaving no stone unturned. I'm continually looking for new records that have clues for genealogy and historical research anywhere I can find any paper or documents with someone's name, date and location.
We are familiar with marriage records, death records, school records, and so on. But finding new records can be informative, and rewarding when you are researching. New genealogical and historical resources can provide more details about the lives of our ancestors and our family history. Just recently I went to a plantation in Louisiana to analyzing new records. The records that I analyzed were receipts records from the commissary store on the plantation. Some of the records were burned and couldn't be saved. A plantation in the Mississippi Delta recently demolished a commissary store. I hope that all the records were removed from the commissary store. Sometimes the family who owns the plantation will keep the records. Others will donate them to a university or State Archives.
Most people in America assume that all African-American people left the plantations after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Some newly freed enslaved Africans stayed on the plantation, and some moved on other plantations because they didn't have anywhere to go. Many former slaves were too old and tired to move. They felt they were better off staying on the plantation where they would have shelter and food.
In 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land often called the Freedmen's Bureau was created at the end of the Civil War to supervise relief efforts including, health care, education, food and clothing, refugee camps, employment, labor contracts, and the legalization of African-American marriages.
Sharecropping was created out of the Freedmen Bureau Contracts. The landowner rented land to the the former slaves in return for a portion of their crops. Sharecropping practices took place for decades. Many types of agreements still exist to this very day. Many former slaves who couldn't read or write were taken advantage of by the landowner. They were forced to stay and work on the plantation in a new form of slavery called peonage and involuntary servitude. Thousands had to flee for their lives sometimes leaving their family behind.
I've been on several plantation were people still live, and some people still work on the plantation. There is one plantation in Mississippi that I visited and had the opportunity to look in the records. I saw the names of the people who worked on the plantation, how many pounds of cotton they picked. There were some photographs of African-Americans on the plantations in the early 40s to the 70s.
When we have exhausted our search in our homes, libraries and internet database such as Ancestry, Family Search, Ancestry and Cyndi's List any other genealogy sites that could be helpful. There are new genealogy resources made available every day that the universities, State Archives, and on genealogy sites.
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Commissary Store Records
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr. |
Educating individuals who had a rich photograph collections, funeral obituary programs, church records, and other vital records that can be helpful to genealogy is essential. Every genealogy or family historian whose ancestors were held as slaves on a plantation would like to find records about their ancestors.
On the commissionary store receipts you will find the name of the person who lived and worked on the plantation. The date and year, the name of the store, and what the person purchased and the price they paid for the items. Some of ther receipts proved how long the person worked on the plantation and how long they purchased items from the store.
There were some payroll and medical records in the boxes too. As long as I have been conducting research, I wish I could find other records for ancestors Robert Harrell, Carrie Richardson or Frank Vining. They were on the Harrell, Richardson and Vining Plantations in East Florida Parishes, Louisiana
