Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Louisa County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1866. Local government records collection, Louisa County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Louisa County. The photocopy of the cohabitation register came to the Library of Virginia under the accession number 40683.

Historical Information

Louisa County was formed in 1742 from Hanover County.

The Virginia legislature passed an act on 27 February 1866 to legalize the marriages of former slaves who had been cohabiting as of that date. See Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1866-1867, Chapter 18, An act to amend and re-enact the 14th section of chapter 108 of the Code of Virginia for 1860, in regard to registers of marriage; and to legalize the marriages of colored persons now cohabiting as husband and wife.

The Federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands directed the Assistant Superintendents of the states to order the county clerks to make a registry of such cohabiting couples. See Circular No. 11, dated 19 March 1866, in Orders, Circulars, Circular Letters, and Letters of Instruction, vol. 2 (1866). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865-1869. Miscellaneous reel 3880, Library of Virginia. National Archives microfilm M1048 (reel 41), Record Group 105.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands was a federal agency created by the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, passed on March 3, 1865. Also known as the "Freedmen's Bureau", this agency was responsible for aiding refugees of the Civil War, especially former slaves, in the areas of education, employment and health care. Meant to last for only one year after the war, the bureau was operational from June 1865 to December 1868.

Scope and Content

Louisa County (Va.) Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Records, 1865-1866, includes orders regarding patrols. The documents relate to orders from Louisa county to form patrols to disarm freedmen in the county and a copy of a letter sent by the Freedmen's Bureau to Culpeper County instructing that such patrols were to be disbanded. The copy of the letter was sent to Louisa because the Freedmen's Bureau had been informed about the patrols and wrote to Louisa to instruct that the patrols there also be stopped and the seized arms returned to the freedmen. The ollection also includes a letter from Orlando Brown of the Freedmen's Bureau to the Louisa County Overseers of the Poor that 12 pauper freedmen of Louisa are currently being cared for by the Bureau and instructing the county to make arrangements for their provision (1865); reply to Orlando Brown's letter that no provision can be made for the paupers and that they should not be returned to the county since they left voluntarily (ca. 1865.); order that the Overseers of the Poor bind out Katy Gillespie, a freed girl (n.d.); order to place or bind out the children of two freed persons in jail for stealing (n.d.); order to the Overseers of the Poor to bind out John, Kitty and Anna Brown to David W. Isbell (n.d.)

The register of colored persons who have been cohabiting as man and wife and who are married legally by virtue of the act of the General Assembly passed February 27th, 1866, is a photocopy from the original located in the records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (RG 105) at the National Archives. The register is commonly called a cohabitation register.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Louisa County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans -- Virginia -- Louisa County.
• Freedmen -- Virginia -- Louisa County.
• Slaves -- Emancipation -- Virginia -- Louisa County.

Geographical Names:

• Louisa County (Va.) -- History.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Letters (correspondence) -- Virginia -- Louisa County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Louisa County.
• Marriage records -- Virginia -- Louisa County.

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

• United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.