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From Greene County to Arkansas 1867
I thought I would post something here, because I found a group known for a while as, "The Georgia Colony".
I am not a regular Georgia researcher and in fact on one of my many research trips to the National Archives in Washington, focusing on my Arkansas research, I was going through the records of the Freedman's Bureau. Since there was a Field Office of the Arkansas Freedman's Bureau in my hometown of Ft. Smith, anything in that set of records interested me.
The Freedman's Bureau was run by the US Army and those who worked in those offices were soldiers. Among one of the letters was a letter sent by the Little Rock Arkansas Field office, and the letter mentioned "the Georgia Colony" a group of Negroes--ex slaves being escorted to Arkansas from Georgia!
Apparently in the years immediately after the Civil War, the former slaves were being persecuted and experienced much violence. Someone pleaded on their behalf to assist them in relocating to another place. As a result preparations were made for 40 ex slaves to migrate west to Arkansas.
Well-----140 made the journey! Several letters received would send word to the Ft. Smith Field office (note---Ft. Smith is Western Arknass and was the "edge" of the country. To the west was Indian Territory.
Some of the letters would say "the colony has crossed the Mississippi and expected to arrive in Little Rock, soon." Another letter would report that "the coloney has arrived in Little Rock and camped out near the railroad station."
The good thing is that there was a list of names---sadly many of them were similar--G.W. Washingtons, or Henry Smith kind of names. Anyway---I have to go through all of my old papers and find that list. These are names that never would have showin up n the 1870 census, because they had left Greene County by that time.
They were expected to settle in Clarksville Arkansas, but from what I can tell many remained in Little Rock once they arrived.
As soon as I can locate the list, I shall post it here.
-Angela
I am not a regular Georgia researcher and in fact on one of my many research trips to the National Archives in Washington, focusing on my Arkansas research, I was going through the records of the Freedman's Bureau. Since there was a Field Office of the Arkansas Freedman's Bureau in my hometown of Ft. Smith, anything in that set of records interested me.
The Freedman's Bureau was run by the US Army and those who worked in those offices were soldiers. Among one of the letters was a letter sent by the Little Rock Arkansas Field office, and the letter mentioned "the Georgia Colony" a group of Negroes--ex slaves being escorted to Arkansas from Georgia!
Apparently in the years immediately after the Civil War, the former slaves were being persecuted and experienced much violence. Someone pleaded on their behalf to assist them in relocating to another place. As a result preparations were made for 40 ex slaves to migrate west to Arkansas.
Well-----140 made the journey! Several letters received would send word to the Ft. Smith Field office (note---Ft. Smith is Western Arknass and was the "edge" of the country. To the west was Indian Territory.
Some of the letters would say "the colony has crossed the Mississippi and expected to arrive in Little Rock, soon." Another letter would report that "the coloney has arrived in Little Rock and camped out near the railroad station."
The good thing is that there was a list of names---sadly many of them were similar--G.W. Washingtons, or Henry Smith kind of names. Anyway---I have to go through all of my old papers and find that list. These are names that never would have showin up n the 1870 census, because they had left Greene County by that time.
They were expected to settle in Clarksville Arkansas, but from what I can tell many remained in Little Rock once they arrived.
As soon as I can locate the list, I shall post it here.
-Angela
Views: 66
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Luckie Daniels on
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OMG Angela! What a blessing this is!
The Georgia Colony - 140 emancipated slaves from GREENE County! AMAZING!
Including myself {some of my Ancestors from Wilkes migrated to Greene}, I can think of SEVERAL researchers immediately {Sandra, Mavis} who will be waiting with baited breath for the name roll!
Absolutely AMAZING!
Luckie. -
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Permalink Reply by Sandra Taliaferro on
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Angela,
This was very interesting; thanks for sharing. I have ancestors from Greene county. Although I don't know of any who migrated to Arkansas, it will be interesting to see that list.
Sandra -
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Abrams on
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Angela,
That was very interesting. I had family who migrated from Georgia to Arkansas. They ended up in Dorsey (now Cleveland) county.
Stephanie -
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Permalink Reply by Mavis Jones on
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Very interesting Angela. My ancestors go back to Greene County but like Sandra, all mine seem to have stayed in GA although it appears most migrated to neighboring counties / areas of GA.
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Angela's post just makes me aware of how much value the Freedmen's Bureau records can be.
Today, while browsing the FBRs I noticed a list of Land Certificates (40 acres) granted to Emancipated slaves in Edisto Island, SC and remembered that one of my new connections, Rhonda Reid (here at GenWise) had identified her Ancestors being from the same area.
I sent the link to Rhonda and it turns out several of her relatives, including her GG Grandfather were on this list!
Maybe we all need to take a deeper look at what Freedmen Bureau data exists!
Question for Angela - are all the Freedmen's records that exist, online? Is there one database source online/offline that contains all Freedmen records?
Cheers,
Luckie. -
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