Historical Contract: Freedman's Contract Between Isham G. Bailey and Freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts
Subject
Forty Acres and a Mule
Title
Historical Contract: Freedman's Contract Between Isham G. Bailey and Freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts
Date
01/01/1867
Type
Historical Contract
Description
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History provides a historical contract between White landowner Isham G. Bailey and Black Freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts in Marshall County, Mississippi, dated January 1, 1867. The contract stipulates that both Roberts and Hughs were to raise cotton and corn and give more than half of the cotton and two-thirds of the corn they raised to Bailey, but the Roberts family was to receive 487 pounds of meat compared to the 550 pounds given to the Hughs family. Additionally, Roberts and his wife agreed to do housework for an additional $50 a year, while the Hughs family agreed to tend the livestock for no additional compensation. This contract was signed in the years following the unfulfilled promise of "Forty Acres and a Mule," which was part of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 that was issued on January 16, 1865, to allot land and leftover Army mules to formerly enslaved African American families.
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Publisher
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Rights
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Insensitive Language/Images: Some sources may include insensitive language or images that were created just before, during or after the Reconstruction Era. We try our best to include advisory “notes” in the description section of each source to inform site visitors about potentially insensitive material.
Fairness & Accuracy Statement: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that seems inaccurate or doesn't look right, please contact us.
Collection
Tags
African American freedom, African American history, Andrew Johnson, Charles Roberts, Civil War, Cooper Hughs, Florida, Forty Acres and a Mule, freedmen, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Georgia, historical contract, Isham G. Bailey, Marshall County, Mississippi, primary source, Reconstruction Era, reparations, sharecropper, sharecropping, South Carolina, Special Field Order No. 15, Union Army
Citation
“Historical Contract: Freedman's Contract Between Isham G. Bailey and Freedmen Cooper Hughs and Charles Roberts,” Project Reconstruction, accessed October 22, 2024, https://projectreconstructionus.com/items/show/19.