iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Freedmen and Southern Society Project

@fssp.bsky.social

632 followers 231 following 149 posts

The Freedmen & Southern Society Project was established in 1976 to capture the essence of the profound social revolution of emancipation in the United States.

Posts Replies Media

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

FSSP editor William Horne discusses what we can learn abt gendered struggles for liberation, recognition, & dignity from the cases of two women caught by the Army in men's clothes. www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/04/i-wa...

1864 photo of five women with military regalia sown onto their dresses for an Army Relief Bazar. The photo is discussed in the linked article as an example of how women complicated gender boundaries in their wartime performances of patriotism.

Original from the Library of Congress here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.58008/

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

We are just on the cusp of making it public. Will be sharing on here & @fssp.bsky.social when it’s live.

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

FSSP editor William Horne writes about what we can learn of postemancipation citizenship & rights through the experiences of Black war widow Henrietta Emory Meads. You check out the full transcription & original images embedded in the article.

journalofthecivilwarera.org

The Unspendable Pension of Henrietta Emory Meads - The Journal of the Civil War Era

Sometime in July 1867, Henrietta Emory wrote to a clerk in the Claim Division of the Maryland Freedmen’s Bureau describing the challenges she had faced in trying to get money due to her as a soldier’s...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

FSSP editor William Horne writes about what we can learn of postemancipation citizenship & rights through the experiences of Black war widow Henrietta Emory Meads. You check out the full transcription & original images embedded in the article.

journalofthecivilwarera.org

The Unspendable Pension of Henrietta Emory Meads - The Journal of the Civil War Era

Sometime in July 1867, Henrietta Emory wrote to a clerk in the Claim Division of the Maryland Freedmen’s Bureau describing the challenges she had faced in trying to get money due to her as a soldier’s...

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Amy Moore & her enslaved family were freed by the Union Army in Alabama, only to be arrested & sold as slaves behind Union lines. "We claim protection," Moore wrote in 1865, "under that [Emancipation] Proclamation from the fact of our living in one of the States mentioned in Said Proclamation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Amy Moore & her enslaved family were freed by the Union Army in Alabama, only to be arrested & sold as slaves behind Union lines. "We claim protection," Moore wrote in 1865, "under that [Emancipation] Proclamation from the fact of our living in one of the States mentioned in Said Proclamation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Former Alabama Slave to the Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of the Subdistrict of Louisville, August 14, 1865, Enclosing the Former Slave's Affidavit

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

After Confederate war crimes against Black troops, Theodore Hodgkins, a Black New Yorker wrote to Secretary of War Stanton that "black soldiers have been murdered again & again yet where is there an instance of retaliation."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black New Yorker to the Secretary of War, April 18, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

After learning that captured Black soldiers "have been cruelly murdered by your authorities, & others sold into slavery," U.S. Major General David Hunter wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to condemn "every outrage of this kind against the laws of war and humanity."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the Department of the South to the Confederate President, April 23, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

After the Army forced Black officers out of the ranks in 1863, a group of Black former officers from Louisiana petitioned to be reinstated "to assist in putting down this wicked rebelion. And in restoring peace to our once peaceful country."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Former Officers in a Louisiana Black Regiment to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, April 7, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

After emancipation, a Black Mississippi veteran reported that his white neighbors "outraged [Black Southerners] beyound humanity. Houses have been tourn down... & the old Negroes after they have worked there till they are 70 or 80 yers of age drive them off in the cold to frieze & starve to death."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mississippi Black Soldier to the Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner, December 16, 1865

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

British Online Archives (BOA) @boapublishing.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

We’ve published a fantastic new primary source collection—"Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832”. Visit the collection landing page at buff.ly/Mf1q0nH.

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

quaithe of the shadow asshai @clarkconquers.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Thank you so much. This is my hometown and I’ve never heard of this incident. Will definitely look into this more

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

ann @anndotann.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Eighteen. Sixty-six.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

After the police chief in Columbia, SC murdered a Black resident in cold blood, an anonymous Black woman wrote to the govt in May 1866: "Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

Screenshot from an anonymous letter to the head of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina:

"It is hard I tell you. Our friends in Congress are wasting time & breath, & all the bills they may pass, will do us no good, unless men are sent here that will see these laws enforced."

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

From the archive, Black education was under assault from its earliest origins after emancipation: "A very respectable young colored Female, teacher of the colored School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was assaulted on the road near the school House by a white man named Cyrus Stack."

Photo of a handwritten letter:

Cambridge March 6th 1866
To Maj. Genl. Howard
Dear Sir
You will please excuse
me for the liberty I take, in presenting to
your consideration a case which recently
occured in our County, A very respectable
young colored Female, teacher of the colored
School near Vienna Dorchester Co md. was
assaulted on the road near the school House
by a white man named Cyrus Stack, and
knocked down, remaining for sometime in
an insensible state! There was an other
white man near by, but he "didn't see" it
of course. Our state laws afford no protection
to this class of people, and the failure
of the "Freedman's bureau bill" leaves
them in a pitiable state indeed.
Can anything be done for them?
very truly yours,
John G. Robinson
School Commission 3d Dist
Dorchester Co Md

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

In December 1865, 2500 Black Washingtonians petitioned Congress for the right to vote. "Experience teaches," they wrote, "that all reforms have their opponents. The same experience also teaches that apprehensions of evil arising from reforms founded in justice, are but seldom if ever realized."

freedmen.umd.edu

Black Residents of Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Congress, December 1865

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Brother Manns From The 5th Floor @kmanns.blacksky.app · 04/11/2025

Same as it ever was

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

After emancipation, Black schoolteacher & future Alabama state legislator William V. Turner reported to the Freedmen's Bureau that local officials were illegally withholding food assistance from Black mothers, telling them it "is not for negroes, but for the poor white women."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Black Teacher to the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent of Education, February 5, 1867; and Headquarters of the Alabama Freedmen's Bureau Assistant Commissioner to the Government Relief ...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

A Black veteran, Sergeant Joe Brown, testified that he was attacked by white cops in Memphis for having served in the military: "he then stepped back a few paces & ran up and struck me with his club, on the head."

freedmen.umd.edu

Statement by a Tennessee Black Sergeant, September 11, 1865

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

“…the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their…” Spotswood Rice, a Black soldier in the US Army, to a Missouri woman who held his daughter in slavery, #otd 1864

that the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their for

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

The Freedmen and Southern Society Project is a terrific resource and everyone should use it!

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

As we begin the 1st few weeks of classes, a reminder that FSSP hosts a large collection of classroom-ready documents related to slavery & its destruction. These first-hand testimonies of enslaved people, Black soldiers, & officials give life to lessons on slavery & the contested arc of emancipation.

freedmen.umd.edu

Freedmen and Southern Society Project: Selected Documents

A selection of documents from Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

The latest issue of Scholarly Editing by ‪‪@editorial-notes.bsky.social‬ features an important essay on how to use documentary editing assignments to help students grapple w the legacies of inequalities, esp in instances where teaching abt these topics is banned. Highly recommend!

scholarlyediting.org

Teaching Tolerance and Empathy through Digital Documentary Editing

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Association for Documentary Editing @editorial-notes.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

We hope you'll join us for today's Annual Meeting sessions and again tomorrow for Rachel Lane's lightning talk about "My Hat Is In the Drink: The Story Behind the Cocktail Inspired by TR’s Unprecedented Run for a Third Term." All Annual Meeting info: www.documentaryediting.org/wordpress/?p...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

After emancipation, Green Jones testified that he was dragged from his home & brutally beaten by white vigilantes for daring to rent land & employ other formerly enslaved people. The men told him "that they would not allow negroes to live off to themselves."

freedmen.umd.edu

Statement of a Louisiana Freedman, August 18, 1866

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

After emancipation, Elizabeth Weden, who was sold away from her family in 1845, managed to locate her father, writing that "I am at this place trying to do the best I can for my self. times are harde here & money scearse. I wish to leve this place, & move out to whare you are."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Freedwoman to Her Father in Virginia, January 18, 1867; and Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent for Alexandria and Fairfax Counties, Virginia, to the Headquarters of the Freedmen's Bureau Assista...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

After emancipation, Elizabeth Weden, who was sold away from her family in 1845, managed to locate her father, writing that "I am at this place trying to do the best I can for my self. times are harde here & money scearse. I wish to leve this place, & move out to whare you are."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Freedwoman to Her Father in Virginia, January 18, 1867; and Freedmen's Bureau Superintendent for Alexandria and Fairfax Counties, Virginia, to the Headquarters of the Freedmen's Bureau Assista...

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Formerly enslaved ppl like Richmond Body regularly had their wages stolen by white employers. He explained: "Mr Beckwith has had all of our part of the crop attached claiming that we were owing him a very large amount– I dont' know what we can owe him for we never have received any thing."

freedmen.umd.edu

Alabama Freedman to the Freedmen's Bureau Subassistant Commissioner at Huntsville, Alabama, December 6, 1866

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

After they won their freedom, formerly enslaved ppl from coastal VA staged a daring raid to rescue their loved ones from slavery. When they were cut off by white locals seeking to kill them or return them to slavery, a desperate struggle ensued.

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of a Black Brigade to the Commander of the District of Eastern Virginia

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

After they won their freedom, formerly enslaved ppl from coastal VA staged a daring raid to rescue their loved ones from slavery. When they were cut off by white locals seeking to kill them or return them to slavery, a desperate struggle ensued.

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of a Black Brigade to the Commander of the District of Eastern Virginia

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

The Commander of the U.S.S. Dale reported a Rebel attack on a self-directed community of formerly enslaved ppl: "At early dawn they fired a volley though the house; as the alarmed people sprang nearly naked from their beds & rushed forth frantic with fear, they were shot, arrested or knocked down."

freedmen.umd.edu

Commander of the U.S.S. Dale to the Commander of the South Atlantic Squadron, June 13, 1862

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Facing eviction to restore their land to former enslavers, Bayley Wyat denounced the government's orders as an affront to justice: "Our wives, our children, our husbands, has been sold over & over again to purchase the lands we now locates upon; for that reason we have a divine right to the land."

freedmen.umd.edu

Report of a Speech by a Virginia Freedman, late December, 1866

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

i2America @i2america.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

👇🏾

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

After Maryland abolished slavery on November 1, 1864, Jane Kamper complained that her former enslaver "told me that I was free but that my Children Should be bound to [him]" & "locked my Children up so that I could not find them."

freedmen.umd.edu

Statement of a Maryland Freedwoman, November 14, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

In June 1863, Harry McMillan testified abt his experiences in slavery in Georgia & South Carolina. Here he describes the extreme working conditions endured by enslaved people. freedmen.umd.edu/mcmilln.htm

Screenshot of a transcribed interview of a formerly enslaved person:

Testimony of Harry McMillan. (colored)

Harry McMillan testified–

I am about 40 years of age, and was born in Georgia but came to Beaufort when a small boy. I was owned by General Eustis and lived upon his plantation.

Q. Tell me about the tasks colored men had to do?

A. In old secesh times each man had to do two tasks, which are 42 rows or half an acre, in “breaking” the land, and in “listing” each person had to do a task and a half. In planting every hand had to do an acre a day; in hoeing your first hoeing where you hoe flat was two tasks, and your second hoeing, which is done across the beds, was also two tasks. After going through those two operations you had a third which was two and a half tasks, when you had to go over the cotton to thin out the plants leaving two in each hill.

Q. How many hours a day did you work?

A. Under the old secesh times every morning till night–beginning at daylight and continuing till 5 or 6 at night.

Q. But you stopped for your meals?

A. You had to get your victuals standing at your hoe; you cooked it overnight yourself or else an old woman was assigned to cook for all the hands, and she or your children brought the food to the field.

Q. You never sat down and took your food together as families?

A. No, sir; never had time for it.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Black Corporal James Henry Gooding of the famed 54th Massachusetts wrote to President Lincoln protesting the inferior pay of Black troops: "all we lack, is a paler hue, and a better acquaintance with the Alphabet. Now Your Excellency, We have done a Soldiers Duty. Why cant we have a Soldiers pay?"

freedmen.umd.edu

Massachusetts Black Corporal to the President, September 28, 1863

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Louisiana enslavers, witnessing the increasingly free movement & demands of enslaved people, complained to the Union Army that "we are in a State of anarchy."

freedmen.umd.edu

Louisiana Planters to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, January 14, 1863

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Louisiana enslavers, witnessing the increasingly free movement & demands of enslaved people, complained to the Union Army that "we are in a State of anarchy."

freedmen.umd.edu

Louisiana Planters to the Commander of the Department of the Gulf, January 14, 1863

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Witnessing the mass exodus of enslaved people from their grasp, Georgia enslavers petitioned the Confederate gov't for swift action as "the injury inflicted upon the interests of the citizens of the Confederate States by this now constant drain is immense."

freedmen.umd.edu

Georgia Slaveholders to the Commander of the 3rd Division of the Confederate District of Georgia, August 1, 1862

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Witnessing the mass exodus of enslaved people from their grasp, Georgia enslavers petitioned the Confederate gov't for swift action as "the injury inflicted upon the interests of the citizens of the Confederate States by this now constant drain is immense."

freedmen.umd.edu

Georgia Slaveholders to the Commander of the 3rd Division of the Confederate District of Georgia, August 1, 1862

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Dependent on her son for support, Black Pennsylvania woman Jane Welcome asked Abraham Lincoln "wether I can have my son relest from the arme." "he is all the subport I have now" she explained, as "his father is Dead and his brother that wase all the help that I had."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mother of a Pennsylvania Black Soldier to the President, November 21, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Dependent on her son for support, Black Pennsylvania woman Jane Welcome asked Abraham Lincoln "wether I can have my son relest from the arme." "he is all the subport I have now" she explained, as "his father is Dead and his brother that wase all the help that I had."

freedmen.umd.edu

Mother of a Pennsylvania Black Soldier to the President, November 21, 1864

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

After winning his freedom, John Q A Dennis wrote the secretary of war to ask for custody of his enslaved children. "I went too know of you Sir is," he asked, "is it possible for me to go & take my Children from those men that keep them in S[l]avery"

freedmen.umd.edu

Maryland Former Slave to the Secretary of War, July 26, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

After winning his freedom, John Q A Dennis wrote the secretary of war to ask for custody of his enslaved children. "I went too know of you Sir is," he asked, "is it possible for me to go & take my Children from those men that keep them in S[l]avery"

freedmen.umd.edu

Maryland Former Slave to the Secretary of War, July 26, 1864

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Unable to collect her wages after emancipation, Levinah Malby wrote to the military "please do me a peace of kineness if you please Sur... to see that I shall get my part of the crop that I have laboured for in the year of our freedom."

freedmen.umd.edu

South Carolina Freedwoman to an Unidentified Military Officer, November 18, 1866

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Unable to collect her wages after emancipation, Levinah Malby wrote to the military "please do me a peace of kineness if you please Sur... to see that I shall get my part of the crop that I have laboured for in the year of our freedom."

freedmen.umd.edu

South Carolina Freedwoman to an Unidentified Military Officer, November 18, 1866

Reposted by Freedmen and Southern Society Project

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

An enslaved woman in Missouri writes to her husband in the 2nd Missouri Colored Infantry, "Send me some money as soon as you can for me & my child are almost naked."

freedmen.umd.edu

Missouri Slave Woman to Her Soldier Husband, January 19, 1864

Freedmen and Southern Society Project @fssp.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

An enslaved woman in Missouri writes to her husband in the 2nd Missouri Colored Infantry, "Send me some money as soon as you can for me & my child are almost naked."

freedmen.umd.edu

Missouri Slave Woman to Her Soldier Husband, January 19, 1864