Contract Between James Mitchell and Dick and Wife

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.

Transcript

We the undersigned have this day agreed to hire to James Mitchell for the year 1866 for the following considerations Viz. Two bales cotton 500 each ten barrels corn five bushels wheat. Said James Mitchell is to furnish us in meal & bread. We are to furnish ourselves in clothing also we are to pay our own Doctors bills We also agree to do any kind of labor Said James Mitchell may deem necessary outside of the crop, and at all times obeying strictly the instruction of the Same Service to commence Jany 1st 1866 close 25th Dec 1866

James Mitchell
Richard [hand drawn X] X
Mary [hand drawn X] X
Approved Jany 19th 1866
John D [illegible]
[signature illegible]

Attest
J.W. Wilkes
P. F. Neely

[3 stamps adhered on bottom of page show image of George Washington and read: U.S. Inter. Revenue Inld. Exchange, 5, Five Cents]

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D No 554
James Mitchell
To
Dick and Wife
Jany 19th 1866
Hardeman Co