Finding Mitchell Bass in the Early Days of Freedom

Louis Mitchell Bass, Horatio Arkansas

     I recently, had one of those genealogy “happy dance” moment while researching records from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Now, I have been looking at the these for many years, but until recent months the search has always been on microfilm. That usually involved a trip to the National Archives, threading the microfilm reader, and sitting down to scroll page after page. But in recent years, two online web sites have digitized these records: the Internet Archive, and most recently Family Search.  And as a result, research can be conducted without travel to Washington, but from the comfort of my own home.

     One of my ancestral communities is southwestern Arkansas, in Sevier County. There was a field office of the Bureau, located in that part of the state, in the town of Paraclifta, Arkansas. So, recently, I sat down to inspect the records from that county.  My ancestors lived in a tiny hamlet called Horatio Arkansas during those post civil war years, and I was not even sure that my ancestors would have made it to the town of Paraclifta, or that their names had been recorded by the Bureau at all. But nevertheless, I looked.

     While going through pages, I came upon a set of pages that contained the names of plantation owners from Sevier county where the my great grandparents lived. I saw one letter from bureau staff, that a circular had been sent to the plantation owners to reply to the bureau stating what their agreements were that had been made with freedmen, now that the War was over and that slavery was abolished.  

So, my eyes scanned the names, of plantation owners, and then I saw the name of one that made we stop:  H. C. Pride. 

National Archives publication M1901 Roll 18, page 1007

Internet Archive Image Image on page 1007

(Image on Family Search)

     I knew that name! 

     Henry C. Pride, of Sevier County Arkansas, was always said to have been the slave holder of my great grandfather, Mitchell Bass. And there was H.C. Pride’s name as a plantation owner to whom, letters had been sent from the Freedmen’s Bureau. A circular had been sent for him to record the names of the Freedmen employees, and state their wages.

     But after seeing Pride's name, my next question was, “Did he reply, and would I see Gr. Grandpa Mitchell’s name as now an employee?”  Or, I wondered, did my ancestor Mitchell leave and find employment with someone else now that freedom had come?

     The next set of pages consisted of names of a Roster of  Freedmen and notes pertaining to the employer and wages to be paid. I could only hope that H.C. Pride would respond to the circular sent to him by the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.  I carefully examined each page looking for those enslaved by H.C. Pride. And then came page 9.

     There was Pride, and whoa!! There was my great grandfather Mitchell!  He was listed along with others now “employees” of Pride.

  And as I looked at their names, I could not help but also notice Susan. Was this possibly the same Susan who was also part of our family? Grandpa Mitchell married a Susan after the war. In fact in the 1870 Federal Census, Mitchell was enumerated with his wife Susan and their children. Could this be the same Susan? I am not certain of that, but both names truly caught my attention. But I knew with certainty that this Mitchell was MY Mitchell.

     The heading of the page recorded the names of the Freedmen, the employer, an employee number, date, and wages paid.

                                      

     Every entry on the page and on all of the pages of the register consisted of the same payment: B. C. and Med. Att. This meant “Board, clothing and medical attention.” The date of this register was July 1865 and the war had not long been over.

     I could not help but notice however, no money was paid for labor.

     However, seeing Mitchell’s name on this roster, I know was the earliest record of my great grandfather! Mitchell would not keep the surname Pride, and by 1870 five years later, he was using the name that he attributed to his parents from whom he was separated years before. He had once lived with his family who lived and worked as enslaved people on the Bass estate, in Giles County Tennessee.

      By 1870, in an effort to reclaim his tie to his own family from whom he was taken in 1860, he chose to use the surname of his parents, which was Bass.  Mitchell would forever be known as Louis Mitchell Bass, reclaiming the name of his own family, and not that of the last slave holder.

     By 1870 he was a farmer on his own, and within a few years, he would purchase land as a homesteader in Sevier County, Arkansas. He would raise his children there, including a daughter, my grandmother Sarah Ellen Bass. 

     The document from the Freedmen's Bureau, tells a lot. It shows that he remained in the same community after freedom came, and he, like many others did, worked but was not paid cash at that time. And as the document reflected, his name was not yet inscribed with a surname. But a mere five years later, he would be recorded in the federal census as Louis Mitchell Bass with wife Susan and family.

     A lot is still to be known about how freedom actually came to Mitchell, Susan and the others, but oh, what a joy to find great grandpa Mitchell’s name, in the bureau records, in the early days of freedom. He was a survivor, and he did make it to see a brighter day.

Source: Harper's Weekly, 1867

The image from Harper's Weekly always warms my heart. In the image one sees men of color participating in the affairs of government, by voting. That simple act of casting a vote is so well reflected in the image. One sees a man dressed as he may have been a farmer. A suited man stands behind him, and then there is the soldier. All are standing proud as men ready to participate in the voting process for the first time, in country of their birth. This was a privilege that until February 3, 1870, that they had not had. But finally when given the opportunity, they did cast their votes so proudly.

On this day in 1870, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. This amendment state that  "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Of course the next century would see continuous efforts to prevent the vote from being extended equally to all. And many states would rescind claiming states rights to prevent people of color from exercising this right. Until 1964 and the Voting Rights Act, efforts to prevent the descendants of former slaves from having equal rights. The struggle was a long and painful one. I recall as a young girl listening to a courageous Fannie Lou Hamer  speak of how she was so brutally beaten for fighting for that simple right to cast a ballot. It was hard to understand how after almost a full century after ratification, the battle for the right to vote was still being fought in this land.

Although this is not a widely known data in American history, it should be, especially in this season of Freedom. So we must pause and understand the importance of February 3 and not forget its significance.

The right to cast a vote was ratified, and to all who fought to keep that right and to defeat illegal laws that were put in place to supress that right, this day should be commemorated.

It is our history. It is American history.

Continuing the Legacy

Harper's Weekly, November 16, 1867

After 150 years of freedom I, a descendant of people once enslaved was able to exercise my right to vote, again.

This mid term election is significant as it occurs on the eve of the 150th anniversary of freedom, and yet, there are son and daughters of those who were once oppressors who have worked hard to keep me, keep my family and many others who simply look like me from that privilege. And many of them will take office, for the climate has changed into one in which code words dominate but they all are signals that say so much.

Such times and social climates remind us that sadly we cannot rest and take things for granted. The forces are there to accuse people who ask for change as being not worthy of citizenship. In recent  years we have seen acts of violence go unchallenged and dismissed with a shrug, and possibly many with such shrugs will take office soon.

Days like today mean that one small gesture can possibly make a difference. Yes, things come and go, and as society progresses, occasionally the winds blow, and bring in negative forces as well. But one things is constant and that is time. How we choose to spend that time is important, so, I made to sure take some time today, to try to slow down the destructive winds, so that they will turn into nothing more than a passing thunderstorm with the rainbow at the end. 

But to get to that rainbow, I had to take some time to do one small thing, that my ancestors did long ago, and it planted them firmly on the soil as people who could make a difference.  

I voted today.

They Watched, They Prayed, and They Waited

Source: Library of Congress

Christmas is a joyous season, but for those enslaved there were few joys during those painful times. However, 150 years ago, the status of my ancestors changed. As this year winds down and we head towards a new year--my ancestors headed towards a new future. On January 1, 1863, the word had spread throughout the land---they would be legally free.

How did they react? Had they heard the word?

Some of my ancestors in Mississippi had already heard that freedom was coming. My ancestor Amanda Young of Ripley Mississippi had seen her husband, her son, and her father leave when the Yankees came into the small town of Ripley. Two of her daughters and her sister also left. Her sister, Mary Paralee Young told how they freed themselves, when the chance came:

Source: Statement made by Mary Paralee Young Civil War Widow, and wife of Pvt. Joseph Young, 59th US Colored Infantry. Mary Paralee gave this statement on behalf of her sister Amanda Young, seeking pension for her husband Berry Young who also left and joined the Union Army

But Amanda was taken away shortly after the slaves had left. She did not get the chance to leave and seize freedom when the others did. She never saw most of them after they left. Did they live? Did they make it? She would not know until 50 years later when she finally saw Paralee, living in Memphis. Only then did she learn what happened when they fled, and that some of them made it to freedom while others did not.

But what happened to Amanda? 

In her file found in the Southern Claims, she revealed that she was taken away to another county--and she, unlike many in her family, had to wait for freedom.

Source: Southern Claims Commission, Approved Claims, Tippah County Mississippi

Amanda was taken to another area, someplace in Lowndes County, and she was now among others not known to her but still in bondage, as the war progressed.  But like countless other slaves who had heard since 1862--freedom was truly coming!

When word had reached the communities in the south, the promise of a new day, now had a date--January 1, 1863! So near, and yet so far, but as the days passed, the time came closer. 

Many of the enslaved who were people of faith, turned to their only hope on that New Year's Eve--God! So they waited!! As the day emerged---as hushed as it might have been--they gathered in the slave quarters and they prayed!

Source: Library of Congress Image

The night before Freedom they watched as the years of bondage melted away.

On that quiet night in 1862, they fell on their needs with the need to pray.

On New Year's Eve they waited at last for relief and freedom of that sweet day.

I think of Amanda, who was now away from those who loved her and those whom she had loved--they were gone and she was also gone away from what was familiar. 

But was she among a group of others who watched and prayed?

I know she waited, but did she attend the watch meeting in the quarters where she was? Did she share their joy? Did she have the hope of seeing her children again, and feel her husband's embrace?

Time and research answered some of those questions--she would never see her daughters Nancy and Alsie, again, and her husband would not return, for he had died in battle. 

But her joys at freedom? 

Oh yes--she shared them! And her joys upon being able to return to Ripley, to the familiar places soothed her weary soul. 

She would eventually remarry and have one more child--a boy called Elijah. And she managed, to have another life, thanks to the good man Pleasant Barr who married her and helped her care for her remaining daughters, Harriet and Violet. Harriet would carry the name of Amanda forward to the next generation and often told stories of Amanda her mother, to my own mother Pauline. 

The memory of Amanda and her quest for freedom would prevail.

I rejoice that Amanda, found a good man who became her life's companion after the war, and they married, and were leaders in the tiny St. Paul's Church, in Ripley Mississippi. Her huband Pleas Barr was also a man of faith, and both would become active in the tiny St. Paul's church community. Her husband Pleas Barr was a founder of the church, and Amanda, for many years was the matriarch of the church, that still stands today.

I think of her strength and how she faced an uncertain future with her new freedom. Her new freedom had stolen her husband, her father and her son, and two of her daughters had left never to return, so she must have clutched her other two daughters, so much closer. But she moved ahead with strength and dignity nevertheless. I wonder if she attended Watch Night services at St. Paul's over the years.

Every year, in most black churches throughout the country, Watch Night is a tradition on New Year's Eve. And I know that on that first Watch Night, Amanda watched and waited and prayed.

On New Year's Eve, I shall honor my own ancestors by holding my own Watch Night in their honor.

I urge other writers and bloggers to share your own watch night stories, traditions, or create a new one on  your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and other online platforms---the 150th Anniversary of our Freedom begins!

Button from the National Archives Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation