This contract shows that Richard and Mary, formerly enslaved, were hired by James Mitchell to labor on the land and perform any other labor that Mitchell deemed necessary in Hardeman County, Tennessee.
The document comes from the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Following the Civil War and ratification of the 13th Amendment, formerly enslaved persons faced many challenges. Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands — better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau —within the War Department on March 3, 1865. The Freedmen’s Bureau assisted formerly enslaved persons by witnessing labor contracts between the freedmen and plantation owners or other employers, legalizing marriages, supplying necessities such as food and clothing, promoting education, and settling freedmen on abandoned or confiscated land.
