civil war era. despite significant financial contributions from figures such as frederick douglass, greenback failed, leaving tens of thousands of depositors and financial ruin. shortly, a panel discusses will poverty in america 150 years after the creation of the free grand site. but first a brief history by reference archivist damani davis . this is about two hours. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] post: good evening and welcome

to the national archives. we wanted to give you a brief presentation on the free demands records -- freedman's bank's records. the largest number of people we have coming our genealogical -- our genealogical researchers because due to programming the institute of genealogical research has skyrocketed among african-americans. so you can have it -- have an idea of the kind of information we can find in these records and if you have ancestors who might have made deposits potentially you can find information about these ancestors or ancestors you

would not know about because often times they will give information on family members. for genealogical information as it pertains to african-americans it will sometimes give names of former slave owners. some of you may not be interested in knowing the names of the people that owned your families if you are the descendent of an enslaved person but from a genealogical respect to, the perspective -- perspective, this is important. because this will give records of your ancestors. most of us are trying to get out before the snowstorm or ice storm. i know some of you have seen this photograph of the actual

open as it existed -- actual building as it existed. today, 150 years ago, the bag was officially signed into law by president lincoln. it was conceived initially by an abolitionist minister was originally from new england. during sherman's march he was a chaplain. during his marks through georgia we are familiar with his special field order 17 where after seeing the conditions of the recently free proclamation, since these human beings had told the soil -- tilled the

soil, very legitimately deserved ownership of the land they had lived on for generations. special order 15 generated the concept of 40 acres and a mule. as you go, after president lincoln was associated and andrew young became -- sorry. [laughter] president andrew johnson basically a lot of these initiatives were overturned by president johnson. the rescinded special order -- he rescinded special order number 15. and since 40 acres and a mule was no longer a promise, that was a severe disappointment to

many of these recently freed african-americans because they felt they deserved to the land but they had to move on. as they moved into the position of wage laborers, many of them have no experience with any type of financial institution or handling money at all. john w alfred out where a special order 15 left off. there had already been some prior financial institutions established by union troops because we had the u.s. colored troops to they made wages but many of them had no institutions. so john w alfred met with people

in new york and explained it and they thought it was a worthy cause. boots of some of the officers in the union troops and established it on a larger basis -- very to the ideas of some of the best -- they took some of the ideas of the officers in the union troops and established it on a larger basis. unfortunately it eventually failed. it was established on secure principles. deposits were invested in security government bonds. but in 1870, the original charter signed by congress was changed and that opened the door to speculation, loans, and so forth.

and along with the recession of 1873 it led to the collapse of the bank. this collapse was devastating to the african-americans, the recently freed population that was investing all of their money into the back. hope was that despite not getting the land they hoped to save their wages in order to buy some land, by homes. b -- buy homes. speaking of this severe blow, my former colleague who recently retired freezes it this way. "the closure of the freedman's bank devastated the african-american bank. what started as an experiment had turned into an economic nightmare for tens of thousands of african americans who have

entrusted hard-earned money to the night. contrary to what many of the depositors were led to believe assets were not protected by the federal government. perhaps more for reaching the immediate loss of their deposits, was the deadening effects the closures and on hopes and dreams of a brighter future -- had own hopes and dreams of a brighter future. the closure left feelings of abandonment and distrust of the banking system that would remain in the african-american community for many years ago -- years." while half of the depositors eventually received some half of the value, others received none.

they spent years petitioning congress for reimbursement of losses. get more information on the history of the freedman's bank we have a great article in the national archives quarterly journal called "prologue." you can go online and read this article by reginald washington but goes into more detail. and also for those who are interested in the senate investigations of the failure of the back, this is one of them from 1879. you can also go online and find us information and read the actual investigation. there were actually two investigations, one by the senate committee and one by the house committee.

let's go into the records. the freedman's bank, and the records we have, we have surviving records from 29 banks. in the records we have are of course the records of the depositors into the bag. at its peak the bank operated 37 branches, making it one of the first multistate banks in the nation. not all of these were in the historical self. -- historical self, the confederacy. new york had warned, baltimore had one, and the headquarters was right here in washington. you can find the name of the depositor, the account number, ages complexion and physical

description, date of birth occupation spouses and children, and other remarks. not all of these accounts were opened by individuals, some were opened by institutions such as churches. an entire church would have members that would make a collective deposit on behalf of the church. sometimes you can find information on the older black churches. for those who are interested in some of the more detailed administrative records, this is some of the microfilm publications we have that you can research. particularly m874, if you are interested in the board of trustees. let's go into some examples. this individual was the first african-american commission captain in the regular army

during the civil war. the have several accounts in the freedman's bank. -- she had several accounts of the freedman's bank. this is an example of how the record would appear. there is basic information on the person, physical description. it describes him as 5'10" in height mulatto. this place of birth, richmond, south carolina. his residence at this particular time, oberlin in lorain county, ohio. his occupation is listed as an employment agent for the freedman's bureau, which is another source of records that are very useful at the national archives for those who are hard to trace african-american and --

writing to trace african-american ancestry. john wesley cromwell, a former slave born in virginia in 1851. his family purchased freedom and moved to philadelphia. later, after the civil war, john wesley cromwell moved to washington, d c to attend law school and established a black newspaper in washington. this particular bank account gives the date that he's opened the account, his place of birth the place for he was raised. at this time gives his place of residence is howard university and his ages 25. his occupation as teacher and it gives his father and his mother and his siblings.

just to give an example of when you are doing research, historical research or genealogical research, oftentimes it is very common for names to be misspelled or for there to be discrepancies in the information. i use this particular example because in each one of the records we have on him there is a different variation on the spellings of his name. here we have reubin pannel. this account is from 1867. or genealogical purposes the relevant information he gives us his former master. his master's martin and his mistress would be his wife is

betsey. his current presidents is listed as 18 street between l and m in washington. a later account is from 1873. his ages listed as 62. his complexion is dark red place of residence -- dark. his place of residence is the same. it gives the name of his wife which is not on the first account but his name is spelled differently. cannot see it by the name is spelled a little different. in the national archives we also have freedman's bureau records. these are not as easy to research as the freedman's bank because fortunately the freedman's bank records have been digitized so you can go online to sites such as ancestry and so forth and type the name

of your ancestor and hopefully if they opened a freedman's bank account it will come up. we advise researchers to not rely solely on databases because is in the information was entered wrong, if they entered the name wrong, nothing will come up if you put the name in. always go to the original record to be sure if you suspect you have an ancestor that opened the account. the freedman's bureau's records there is no comprehensive name of subject records. but the information is very valuable. there we have a marriage record from the bureau records in washington dc. the same couple, reuben pannel

and eliza henderson, it gives her maiden name. is legalizes the marriages -- this legalizes the marriages of formerly enslaved persons. if confined individuals that considered themselves married for 50 years or 60 years, people with grandchildren or so forth but all of them are going to the freedman's bureau to get marriages is recognized for the first time is within slavery -- because within slavery, they could be sold away from each other in the spots of the children because there was no legal recognition of family bond . that is something that is common in the records that we have. another variation of the names this is a census record which is another commonly used federal records that we have for genealogical research, just

confirming that the family is in washington, d.c.. but also showing when you do research, do not view the records in isolation. if you can go to the freedman's bureau records but try to defend the two other right -- connect them to other records. you also need to go to the local level and state record to find records that might be in church archives or state archives or so forth. there is another interesting person from right here in washington, d.c. this is an example of somebody opening an account on behalf of a church. alfred pope was a leading member of the washington, d.c. black community at the turn of the previous century, the 1800s into the 1900s.

it is making an account on behalf of the mount zion church in georgetown -- she is making an account -- he is making an account on behalf of the mount zion church in georgetown. here is his wife was a bank account she is opening with information on the children and so forth. there is another record that once you begin researching one type of record it can eventually lead to other records. there is alfred pope's affidavit of freedom which he received before the emancipation proclamation because washington, d.c. received the liberation of slaves in 1862 prior to the emancipation proclamation. it gives background information on this person. the bearer, alfred pope, a

colored man, a former servant by the liberals will was set free -- colonel's will was set free. he has in his possession a certified copy but about a week ago his dwelling fire and it was destroyed with the furnishing. it shows how the records can be found in when you investigate one that can lead to other records. there is alfred pope's freedman's bureau marriage record which confirms the information, showing that they were married. the marriage was legalized after slavery. this is the family in the census , and another census.

the rest of these records -- [laughter] it basically gives the same kind of information. it is not going into details, it is giving the names of families and occupation. for genealogical purposes, doing that kind of research, you are approaching it from the standpoint of a private investigator or so any information you get, any tidbit can lead to other records and creates a snowball effect where the more pieces of information's you get -- information you get can help you gather more information. i am going to kind of go on through the rest of these records that show how you can do that and show the value of the freedman's bank records. but before you go i want to show something else you can find that

the freedman's bank. freedman's bank records reveal some of the tragic history that many of these individuals had gone through. many of these freedman's bank records especially in states like mississippi and louisiana many of these individuals were born in places such as richmond virginia. this particular region that we are in, the chesapeake region. maryland and virginia. multitudes of people. you look at the vicksburg records, natchez, mississippi. over and over again, you are finding people when asked for their place of birth they are saying eastern shores of maryland. frederick, maryland, baltimore ireland, washington, d.c. with that represents is the

internal or domestic slave trade that occurred after 1808. after 1808 the transatlantic slave trade was ended so in this particular region which was formally based on the cultivation of tobacco tobacco cultivation was no longer as lucrative as it once was. this was the oldest area of what was considered the self so they considered themselves to have a surplus slave population. as is were the largest amount of slaves were. virginia have the largest black population. but what occurred during that period is that many of the slaveowners that no longer needed that surplus labor, they began to sell that surplus enslaved labor to the new states

of the expanding cotton belt. initially they would still them -- so them down to georgia so you would have frederick douglass talking about being sold to georgia. but it was exacerbated as slavery began to spread from georgia into alabama, mississippi, and so forth. in these records you see evidence of that. these individuals fear born in richmond virginia. -- here born into richmond, virginia. names of family members, as far as they'd know parents are dead and other times they say they do not know. they do not know the status of parents and siblings. just a few more examples, this

person to your left says he was born in maryland. he was brought up and raised in the city of washington washington d.c. his residence now was natchez, mississippi. his occupation. information on his wife and children julia. when asked about his father he says he does not know. he does not know the status of his father and did so on -- ditto on his mother. he was recently sold away. another person to your right is another person from washington d.c. who was raised in washington d.c. but is now in natchez, mississippi. again indicating that the internal slave trade.

prince george's county maryland. frederick, virginia, state of virginia, now in mississippi. so essentially most of the individuals that we have here or family historians and genealogists. we also have historians who come here to examine these records in order to glean some of this information and to reconstruct build some type of idea or knowledge of what was occurring at that time and documenting it was actual records. -- with actual records. before we close i would like to open the floor to questions if anyone has any questions. appear. -- up here. excuse me?

we do not have an actual genealogy website. on www. archives.gov, we have a page that gives information on the information we have in the national archives: from -- archives. every week we have presentations like the records program that examines different records. every april we have a genealogy fair. it used to be a big fair that we had outside in front of the building and now what is virtual. it -- it is virtual. meaning you can go online and watch the presenters. the speak on topics related to genealogy. even after the presentations they are sometimes held on you too, you can watch them --

youtube, you can watch them. excuse me? it depends on the particular record. records that have not been digitized -- the majority of records have not been digitized because there are too many. freedman's bureau' records have not been digitized we are on microfilm and that is the only way to research them. to go to the particular state or you have ancestors and narrow it down on the office that has jurisdiction over that county and scroll through the microfilm . at some point we hope the records can be digitized. freedman's bank records are digitized at this time so you do not have to go to microfilm. anytime you are in any national archives facility, you have free

access to all of these independent sites that have digitized records. if you do not have a subscription with ancestry.com or with heritage quest i think family search available to anyone without subscription, but definitely ancestry. anytime you are within any of our facilities, you have free access on public access computers. you can go on ancestry. if you want to research freedman's bank you can do on our computers and do the research you would like to do on those particular computers. >> all that information, people go on the websites and find out [indiscernible]

damani: the information is there but from the feedback we have received from some customers often times our website is difficult to navigate. we have had complaints about that. if you stay unbearably around with that you can find -- on there and play around with that you can find what you are looking for. [laughter] yes. but for the most part on the front page of the website, the archives are good at having a list of the monthly events. so, so yes. you get some information to point you in a direction. but from that point if you cannot not have what you're looking for you can call and have some numbers and specialists and meet you at that point. thank you.