This collection consists of work contracts between formerly enslaved individuals and employers enacted during the operation of the Freedmen’s Bureau. On March 3, 1865, the federal government created The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands using the Freedmen's Bureau Bill. Also known as the "Freedmen's Bureau," this agency was responsible for aiding refugees of the Civil War, especially formerly enslaved people in the areas of education, employment, and health care. Meant to last for only one year after the war, the Bureau was largely operational from June 1865 to December 1868, and officially abolished in 1872. Local offices of the Freedmen's Bureau assisted in drawing up contracts between formerly enslaved people and employers. These contracts were meant to ensure that the formerly enslaved were accorded fair and legal work contracts that included precise terms of employment. However because many formerly enslaved people were forced to enter into arrangements with former enslavers, arrangements could be largely ignored or abused. They eventually morphed into sharecropping and debt peonage. Contracts usually specify the dates of the expected employment, the occupation of the employee, expected wages and housing arrangements, and any rent that was to be paid to the employer. These records were generated by the federal government and therefore many are housed in the National Archives, however a few localities retained possession of these records in their courthouses after the dissolution of the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1872.

Descriptions included in this dataset are drawn directly from the original documents and may contain language which is now deemed offensive.

Indentures of apprenticeship within Virginia Untold are composed of agreements binding out free Black and multiracial individuals, often children, to learn a particular trade or craft. These indentures may be written agreements between the family of the apprentice and those responsible for the indentured. They typically contain the name of the person or institution binding out, the person to whom bound, the name of the person being indentured, the length of the apprenticeship, and the responsibilities of the person taking on the indenture.

In 1765, the General Assembly established that illegitimate children of “woman servants, Negroes, white women by Negroes were to be bound out” until the age of 21 for males and 18 for females. In 1792, the General Assembly transferred this responsibility to the Overseers of the Poor. White children were to be taught various skills including reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1805, the General Assembly amended the previous act to no longer require the master of “black or mulatto orphans” to teach reading, writing, or arithmetic, with the intent that this would prevent Black children from learning these skills. There are documented cases of indenture holders treating Black apprentices cruelly, or not releasing apprentices at the end of their indenture. White authorities also used their power to apprentice Black children without the permission of their families. Free Black men and women who had petitioned to be re-enslaved (see also Petitions for Re-Enslavement) were known to use this tool as a way of preserving the integrity of their families. Some parents bound out their children to a chosen master for a finite period of time, hopefully ensuring that the children would not be split up and remain free.

The data in this collection is drawn directly from the historical documents and may contain language that is now deemed offensive.