Records Relating to Freedmen's Labor

The freedmen's labor contracts, which the bureau assisted in drawing up, consist of agreements between freedmen laborers and planters stating terms of employment, such as pay, clothing, and medical care due the freedman; the part of the crop to be retained by him; and whether a plot for growing subsistence crops was to be provided. The reports of contracts made were submitted by subordinate officers. Some reports are tabular statements that show the number of contracts approved by the bureau; others are narrative reports that give the name of the employer, the number of employees, and the terms of the contracts approved. Indentures of apprenticeship are preprinted or handwritten forms giving pertinent data concerning the contracted parties, dates of apprenticeship, and include a statement of the obligations and responsibilities of each party. Registers of indentures provide the date, name of the person indentured, name of the officer who officiated, and name of the custodian to whom the person was indentured. Some of the monthly reports of indentures are narrative, while others list persons apprenticed, to whom apprenticed, date of indenture, when the indenture was recorded, and when it was approved by probate court.

Arkansas

• Indenture Bonds for Hempstead, Arkansas (part of the records for the State of Tennessee)

Georgia

• Work Contract between Freedmen in Wilkes County, Georgia and Clark Anderson & Co. in Mississippi

North Carolina

• Order of Chowan Court, August Term 1867 Cancelling Indentures of Colored Children; List of the names of Whites and Blacks bound as apprentices by the County Court of Onslow and cancelled in accordance with the recent decision of the Supreme Court of North Carolina in the case of Ambrose H. Russell.
• Transcription of indenture between Mary A. Bryant and Helen, a colored orphan; and J. L. Motley and Lucy, a colored orphan.
• Index to Indentures July 1866 - June 1867
• Index to Indentures January 1866 - June 1866
• A list of Colored Apprentices that have been indentured in the County Court of Cleveland County since May 1865
• Register of Indentures Dec. 1865 - June 1866
• A List of the names of freed persons to be transported from Charlotte, N. C. to Brownsville, Tennessee who have contracted with James Bond Jr.
• Freedmen's Bureau Indenture Bonds - Anson County, North Carolina (Contracts to work in Tennessee)

Tennessee

• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in various states
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Crittenden County, Arkansas
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Alabama
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Louisiana
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Arkansas
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Kentucky
• Index to Freedmen's labor contracts in Fayette County, Tennessee
• Index to Freedmen's Labor Contracts, Memphis & Charleston Railroad
• Index to contracts between Tennessee freedmen and employers in Mississippi County, Arkansas
• Index to contracts between Tennessee freedmen and employers in Arkansas County, Arkansas
• Miscellaneous Freedmen's Labor Contracts - Tennessee
• Miscellaneous Freedmen Work Contracts - Tennessee
• Freedmen's Bureau Indenture of Apprenticeships - Hardeman County, Tennessee
• Freedmen's Bureau Indentures for Rutherford County, Tennessee
• Freedmen's Bureau Apprenticeships in Shelby County, Tennessee
• Freedmen's Bureau Indenture Agreements for Smith County, Tennessee (two agreements, Shoemake/Conditt, Saddler/Beasley)
• Freedmen’s Bureau Indenture of Apprenticeship Bonds - Dickson County, Tennessee
• Freedmen’s Bureau Indenture of Apprenticeship Bonds - Dyer County, Tennessee
• Freedmen's Bureau Indenture of Apprenticeship Bonds for Madison County, Tennessee 
• Bolivar, Tennessee Indenture Bond, Balaam Fentress, Frances Fentress and Levi Chesheir
• Freedmen's Bureau Indenture Bonds - Anson County, North Carolina (Contracts to work in Tennessee)