Most women's lives did not change much after the Civil War.
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Thomas P. Anshutz (1851-1912) The Chore 1888
The National Archives holds rich collections of records on 19C Southern African American women. ...Nineteenth-century African American women who had been enslaved did not leave (many) primary sources such as diaries & letters. Therefore records from the federal government have been invaluable in writing about these women.
The pension records were originally created so that widows of soldiers could receive monthly compensation for the loss of their husbands. Over 100,000 African American men served in the United States Army during the Civil War, the majority of whom had been Southern & had once been slaves. The granting of pensions to formerly enslaved women was tricky because slave marriages were not governed by a contractual agreement as were civil marriages & were not considered legal. Originally, pension law only recognized legal marriages & ignored slave marriages. Slaves did not possess legal documentation, like a marriage certificate, for use as evidence in a widow's pension claim.
The United States Congress, aware that slave couples had lived together & raised families, authorized guidelines allowing former slave wives to receive pensions. In 1864 Congress amended the pension bill by allowing "that the widows & children of colored soldiers . . . shall be entitled to receive the pensions now provided by law, without other proof of marriage than that the parties had habitually recognized each other as man & wife, & lived together as such for a definite period, not less than two years, to be shown by the affidavits of credible witnesses." The section of the act of 1864 regarding African American marriages was repealed in 1866 & replaced with new provisions. The law eliminated distinctions among states in which black claimants could or could not legally marry.
During Reconstruction, all former slave states legalized the right of African Americans to contract & marry. The act of June 6, 1866, required no "other evidence of marriage than proof, satisfactory to the Commissioner of Pensions, that the parties have habitually recognized each other as man & wife, & lived together as such.""Satisfactory" proof of marriage was defined more precisely in legislation passed on June 15, 1873. An African American widow was required to supply evidence that she & her husband "were joined in marriage by some ceremony deemed by them obligatory."
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Thomas P. Anshutz (1851-1912) Gardening 1879
It was the complicated procedures involved in documenting nonlegal slave marriages that make these pension records so rich for women's & family history. Since formerly enslaved women could not simply mail in their marriage licenses to obtain their widow's pensions, they provided oral testimony on their marriages & the births of their children. Pension officials also relied on people within the pension claimants' communities who could identify them by recalling personal information...
One example is the file of Lucy Brown. While enslaved to one of the wealthiest slave owners in Mississippi, Lucy Brown married fellow slave Thomas Brown & bore several children. According to Henry Young, who had resided on the same plantation as the Browns, "Thomas & Lucy lived together as husband & wife continually after they were married up to the time that he enlisted." During the war, while Lucy's husband, Thomas, served in the Union army, Lucy lived in a federal camp established for ex-slaves. Reunited in Vicksburg, Lucy & Thomas legally married with an Union army chaplain officiating. According to Lucy Brown, "We were married again by the chaplain of the regiment & he gave me a certificate." After her husband died during the war, Lucy, accompanied by her only surviving child, Clara, found work as a field hand & a domestic servant after the war... The testimonies within the pension file also describe the war experiences of African Americans who left their plantations to become free. Lucy's work after the war as a field hand & domestic are also mentioned...
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.Thomas P. Anshutz (1851-1912) Aunt Hannah
When the pension records are combined with those of the Freedmen's Bureau, a fuller story of freed women & how freedom changed their lives from slavery emerges. The Freedmen's Bureau (officially know as Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands) was established by a congressional act passed in March 3, 1965...
While the pension records are best used for discussion of African American women's private & family lives, the Freedmen's Bureau gives much more information about labor relations in the post-bellum South. Many of the labor contracts were standard forms that delineated wages & obligations of employer & employee. .. For example, one woman agreed in her labor contract "to do cooking, washing, ironing, & general housework & anything about the yard or garden that may be required of her." Charity Riley's employers expected her to be responsible for the dairying (including making the butter), feeding the chickens, cooking, washing, spinning, & weaving cloth. She also raised cotton, potatoes, & other vegetables, which her employer allowed her to sell for her own profit. As with Venus Williams, who was hired as a cook but whose employer also required her "to work in the field when necessary," many domestic servants were expected to provide agricultural labor at the discretion of the employer...
Through the labor contracts, bureau agents, correspondence & reports, complaint books, & other source material in the Freedmen's Bureau, historians can show how free labor during Reconstruction transformed the status of former slave women as well as men. After the war, former slave women & men assumed they would have more autonomy over their working lives. For freed women, the fight for more control over their labor took on an additional urgency because they wanted & needed more time for their families. One contract signed by Thomas McArty for himself & his family indicated that his wife would be given "half of each Saturday to wash their clothes." Freedmen's Bureau records such as this contract shows the interconnections between labor & family.
Purchases from the plantation store documented by accounts in the Freedman's Bureau reflected the differences in women's & men's division of labor, functions within the family, & style of dress. On the Oakwood plantation near Vicksburg in January 1868, most men & women kept separate tallies. Men's accounts included pants, caps, shirts, boots, shot, fishing line, powder, hooks, & buckets. Women purchased cloth, such as cotton plaid, but no pants or shirts. Such accounts imply that men assumed responsibility for hunting & fishing equipment while women bought materials for clothes-making. Men & women both acquired whiskey, tobacco, lamp oil, & thread...
The existence of the records proves that public policy, in this case the distribution of pensions, placed very private concerns into the public domain. The invasion of privacy of these women has given historians the opportunity to explore a world of family, marriage, sexuality, & friendships, often hidden by traditional sources.
Noralee Frankel is the author of Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi (1999).
From Slave Women to Free Women: The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era
The National Archives holds rich collections of records on 19C Southern African American women. ...Nineteenth-century African American women who had been enslaved did not leave (many) primary sources such as diaries & letters. Therefore records from the federal government have been invaluable in writing about these women.
The pension records were originally created so that widows of soldiers could receive monthly compensation for the loss of their husbands. Over 100,000 African American men served in the United States Army during the Civil War, the majority of whom had been Southern & had once been slaves. The granting of pensions to formerly enslaved women was tricky because slave marriages were not governed by a contractual agreement as were civil marriages & were not considered legal. Originally, pension law only recognized legal marriages & ignored slave marriages. Slaves did not possess legal documentation, like a marriage certificate, for use as evidence in a widow's pension claim.
The United States Congress, aware that slave couples had lived together & raised families, authorized guidelines allowing former slave wives to receive pensions. In 1864 Congress amended the pension bill by allowing "that the widows & children of colored soldiers . . . shall be entitled to receive the pensions now provided by law, without other proof of marriage than that the parties had habitually recognized each other as man & wife, & lived together as such for a definite period, not less than two years, to be shown by the affidavits of credible witnesses." The section of the act of 1864 regarding African American marriages was repealed in 1866 & replaced with new provisions. The law eliminated distinctions among states in which black claimants could or could not legally marry.
During Reconstruction, all former slave states legalized the right of African Americans to contract & marry. The act of June 6, 1866, required no "other evidence of marriage than proof, satisfactory to the Commissioner of Pensions, that the parties have habitually recognized each other as man & wife, & lived together as such.""Satisfactory" proof of marriage was defined more precisely in legislation passed on June 15, 1873. An African American widow was required to supply evidence that she & her husband "were joined in marriage by some ceremony deemed by them obligatory."
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Thomas P. Anshutz (1851-1912) Gardening 1879It was the complicated procedures involved in documenting nonlegal slave marriages that make these pension records so rich for women's & family history. Since formerly enslaved women could not simply mail in their marriage licenses to obtain their widow's pensions, they provided oral testimony on their marriages & the births of their children. Pension officials also relied on people within the pension claimants' communities who could identify them by recalling personal information...
One example is the file of Lucy Brown. While enslaved to one of the wealthiest slave owners in Mississippi, Lucy Brown married fellow slave Thomas Brown & bore several children. According to Henry Young, who had resided on the same plantation as the Browns, "Thomas & Lucy lived together as husband & wife continually after they were married up to the time that he enlisted." During the war, while Lucy's husband, Thomas, served in the Union army, Lucy lived in a federal camp established for ex-slaves. Reunited in Vicksburg, Lucy & Thomas legally married with an Union army chaplain officiating. According to Lucy Brown, "We were married again by the chaplain of the regiment & he gave me a certificate." After her husband died during the war, Lucy, accompanied by her only surviving child, Clara, found work as a field hand & a domestic servant after the war... The testimonies within the pension file also describe the war experiences of African Americans who left their plantations to become free. Lucy's work after the war as a field hand & domestic are also mentioned...
When the pension records are combined with those of the Freedmen's Bureau, a fuller story of freed women & how freedom changed their lives from slavery emerges. The Freedmen's Bureau (officially know as Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands) was established by a congressional act passed in March 3, 1965...
While the pension records are best used for discussion of African American women's private & family lives, the Freedmen's Bureau gives much more information about labor relations in the post-bellum South. Many of the labor contracts were standard forms that delineated wages & obligations of employer & employee. .. For example, one woman agreed in her labor contract "to do cooking, washing, ironing, & general housework & anything about the yard or garden that may be required of her." Charity Riley's employers expected her to be responsible for the dairying (including making the butter), feeding the chickens, cooking, washing, spinning, & weaving cloth. She also raised cotton, potatoes, & other vegetables, which her employer allowed her to sell for her own profit. As with Venus Williams, who was hired as a cook but whose employer also required her "to work in the field when necessary," many domestic servants were expected to provide agricultural labor at the discretion of the employer...
Through the labor contracts, bureau agents, correspondence & reports, complaint books, & other source material in the Freedmen's Bureau, historians can show how free labor during Reconstruction transformed the status of former slave women as well as men. After the war, former slave women & men assumed they would have more autonomy over their working lives. For freed women, the fight for more control over their labor took on an additional urgency because they wanted & needed more time for their families. One contract signed by Thomas McArty for himself & his family indicated that his wife would be given "half of each Saturday to wash their clothes." Freedmen's Bureau records such as this contract shows the interconnections between labor & family.
Purchases from the plantation store documented by accounts in the Freedman's Bureau reflected the differences in women's & men's division of labor, functions within the family, & style of dress. On the Oakwood plantation near Vicksburg in January 1868, most men & women kept separate tallies. Men's accounts included pants, caps, shirts, boots, shot, fishing line, powder, hooks, & buckets. Women purchased cloth, such as cotton plaid, but no pants or shirts. Such accounts imply that men assumed responsibility for hunting & fishing equipment while women bought materials for clothes-making. Men & women both acquired whiskey, tobacco, lamp oil, & thread...
The existence of the records proves that public policy, in this case the distribution of pensions, placed very private concerns into the public domain. The invasion of privacy of these women has given historians the opportunity to explore a world of family, marriage, sexuality, & friendships, often hidden by traditional sources.
Noralee Frankel is the author of Freedom's Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi (1999).