 Hello, I'm Dr. Colleen Chogan, Archivist of the United States. On behalf of the National Archives and Arlington National Cemetery, I would like to welcome you to today's program on the Freedman's Village. Many formerly enslaved African-Americans traveled north, seeking refuge during the Civil War. Thousands made their way here to Washington, D.C., looking for help in the nation's capital. In response, the federal government established the Freedman's Village in Arlington, Virginia, on the estate previously owned by the family of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. This planned community, located in the heart of what would eventually become Arlington National Cemetery, provided shelter and opportunities for work, job training, and education. The Freedman's Village was dedicated on December 4, 1863, and it evolved into a unique and thriving community with schools, hospitals, churches, and social services serving over 1,000 people. We have many records related to the Freedman's Village here at the National Archives, including government correspondence, maps, and plans for establishing and supporting the village. With that history in mind, we are thrilled to be partnering with Arlington National Cemetery today. We have a great panel of subject matter experts here with us, including Allison Finkelstein, the senior historian for Arlington National Cemetery, Stephen Hammond, who is a genealogist, family historian, and seventh generation member of the SyFax family of Virginia and Washington, D.C., and Damani Davis, our in-house expert for records relating to the African-American experience at the National Archives. Amber Forrester, another one of our excellent archivists, is moderating today's Q&A discussion immediately following the presentations from our panel members. I hope you enjoy today's enlightening conversation. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Allison Finkelstein, and I am senior historian at Arlington National Cemetery. And I'm Steve Hammond. I'm a retired earth scientist, a genealogist, and a family historian. We're both so honored and excited to be collaborating with the National Archives on this webinar about the Arlington Freedman's Village in honor of Black History. We are especially passionate about sharing this history in 2024, the 160th anniversary of Arlington National Cemetery. During this first part of the program, we will be introducing you to the history of the Arlington Freedman's Village together. We will trace the origins, evolution, and eventual demise of this remarkable community of formerly enslaved people who built new lives for themselves right here on land that later became part of Arlington National Cemetery. There is a story of resilience and renewal, a profound hope amidst desperate struggle. As you will learn, the story of Freedman's Village is much more than just a local story. It has national significance connected to major events in the nation's history. And although the residents were eventually removed from this land, Freedman's Village still has a living legacy that remains strong. During the first part of our segment, we will briefly trace the history of Freedman's Village. Then, we will head out to the actual location of the former village so you can virtually visit the site. Along the way, Allison and I will have a discussion about the meaning of Freedman's Village and its lasting impact on Arlington National Cemetery and the nation. We will touch on some tough topics, and in the process we hope to share some different perspectives on Arlington National Cemetery and its many meanings. Let's get started with a brief history of the Arlington property and the Freedman's Village. Prior to European settlement, the land around what is today Arlington National Cemetery was inhabited by indigenous people from the Powhatan Confederation. The land eventually came under the ownership of George Washington Park Custis, Martha Washington's grandson and the step-grandson of President George Washington. Custis established a plantation on this property to serve as his family home. Between 1802 and 1818, enslaved laborers constructed Custis' grand neoclassical plantation house on a hilltop on the property, known today as Arlington House and under the management of the National Park Service. Overlooking the new nation's capital and easily seen from within the city, Custis intended Arlington House to be both a home and a memorial to George Washington. George Washington Park Custis inherited the 1,100 acre parcel of land that would first be known as Mount Washington and later Arlington House Plantation. He also inherited people, bringing 36 enslaved people to the undeveloped land. The enslaved worked in the house as well and were maids, goleys, weavers and spinners, gardeners and coach drivers for the enslaving families. They cared for the grounds, the animals, the livestock and the gardens. They wove the cloth and made the clothing and the shoes that were worn. They were present through all cycles of life, overseeing the birth of babies and digging the graves of death. They took care of one another as well as the families that enslaved them, even as they were exploited and abused by labor expectations and sexual violence. The history of this space is complex. For example, one branch of my Syfax ancestors are direct descendants of Mariah Carter Custis Syfax, who was the daughter of George Washington Park Custis and an enslaved woman named Ariana Carter. Mariah was born enslaved in 1803, would become a servant to Custis's white daughter, her half-sister, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who would later marry Robert E. Lee in 1831. When Mariah was allowed to marry Charles Syfax, the enslaved dining rooms attended in 1821. In 1826, Custis sold Mariah and her two infant children to an Alexandria Quaker, and oddly enough gave her 17 acres on the southern boundary of the plantation, where she lived for the rest of her life. Her husband Charles remained enslaved until December 1862, and his brother-in-law Robert E. Lee emancipated the Custis Lee enslaved community. In April of 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to fight against his nation and joined the Confederacy. The strategic importance of this family's hilltop home was clear to him. No matter which side he chose, the U.S. Army had to secure the heights of the Arlington Plantation to protect Washington, D.C. As expected, in May of 1861, the U.S. Army occupied the Arlington property. They eventually built three major forts on the land, clearing trees and transforming the landscape. The first military burial at Arlington did not take place until May of 1864, and Arlington did not become an official military cemetery until June of 1864, after Friedman's Village had already been established. Friedman's Village thus predated the cemetery. After Lee departed in the spring of 1861, as the Civil War unfolded, the enslaved community at the former Arlington House Plantation entered a sort of limbo. When freedom came, several of the families migrated together first to Friedman's Village and then to the nearby surrounding area. They intermarried and they worshiped together, even as others moved away and spread out across the country. Others stayed and became part of a highly intertwined African-American community surrounding Arlington House with relationships within and between Arlington family groupings. For my PsyFax ancestors, Charles PsyFax was now able to be with his wife, Mariah, and family and children. He had been enslaved for more than three and a half decades longer than Mariah. This brings us now to the events that precipitated the need to establish a Friedman's Village at Arlington. To understand this, we need to start with a little background, which is going to involve some things that can be difficult to talk about. During the Civil War, enslaved people were considered property. And as such, enslaved people whose owners supported the Confederacy could be confiscated by the US Army. Even though they were humans, these enslaved people were considered contraband of war. The word contraband means confiscated enemy property. During the Civil War, this term contraband came to be used to refer to escaped enslaved people who fled across US Army lines seeking their own freedom. This term dehumanized these freed people since it was the same language used for any other confiscated Confederate property, including livestock, machinery, and buildings. It is important to talk about the word contraband, though, for several reasons. First, it was the term used at the time, and it is historically accurate, uncomfortable, as it may make us today. And second, a closer analysis of this word indicates that courageous enslaved people took it upon themselves to seize their own freedom. Their story really allows us to shine a light on the agency and humanity of formerly enslaved people, even though the term contraband of war is inherently dehumanizing. While we could talk at length about events related to the contraband of war throughout the South and especially in Virginia, we are going to focus today on just the Arlington story. As formerly enslaved people ran away to US lines to seek their freedom, they often came north, and many reached northern Virginia and the DC area. The region became inundated with these men, women, and children who had no money, no property, and no means of supporting themselves during a war being fought over their own fate. The DC area essentially had a refugee problem. These formerly enslaved people were, in all senses of the word, wartime refugees, and the US government needed a way to safely house and feed them. They established a network of refugee camps and the Arlington property, already under their control, presented itself as an ideal location for one of these settlements. The village had carefully planned roads, rows of whitewashed duplex houses, a hospital, a home for the elderly, and even a small link. With the support of aid societies, residents had opportunities to learn skills that would help them support their families. For example, women might learn housekeeping skills, while men might get vocational training. Education was of the utmost importance, and religious missionaries helped establish schools, including a night school for adults. The goal was to prepare residents to lead their own independent lives and support themselves once they left the village, which was only ever intended to be a temporary settlement and not a permanent community. Many residents found employment working in the village itself or for the federal government, jobs that enabled them to start their lives anew. Among those who came to Freedman's Village to support its inhabitants was the famous abolitionist, Sojourner Truth. In 1864, Truth lived and worked at the village as an agent of the National Freedman's Relief Association. She counseled the residents and taught them skills to ease their transition into life as free people. As a formerly enslaved woman who had seized her own freedom and become a nationally known abolitionist leader, Truth found great meaning in her experience at the Freedman's Village. Sojourner Truth's passion for the mission and people of Freedman's Village illuminates the early significance of Freedman's Village. This was more than a refugee camp. The village was a hopeful symbol of a better future for people who had spent their lives in bondage. It represented the larger overwhelming project of transitioning from enslavement to freedom, a process that would continue for decades and the repercussions of which continue to impact our nation today. That story can be told right here at Arlington through the history of Freedman's Village. After the end of the Civil War, administration of Freedman's Village transferred from the War Department to the newly created Freedman's Bureau. The village grew and became the hub of Black life in Arlington. For most of its existence, the population at Freedman's Village was about 1,000 residents. As it expanded, so did its civic associations and churches. And a thriving black community took root in the village and its vicinity. However, that community soon came under risk. The military wanted the land back so that it could be used for burial space and to expand Fort Meier adjacent to the cemetery and the village. Government officials had only envisioned the village as a temporary settlement. And civilians living on federal land proved complicated. Combined with prejudice and the growing national backlash to reconstruction, the future of Freedman's Village was at stake. Even though many residents had purchased their land and their homes, a decades long battle against eviction ensued and continued through the 1880s and the 1890s. John Bryce Syfax, who lived from 1832 to 1916, was Charles and Mariah Syfax's eighth child. John has a special place in the narrative of the Freedman's Village. In fact, also in Arlington and beyond. As the village began to thrive, whites in Arlington grew concerned over the emerging voting block of black men. Despite efforts for break up, John Syfax won election to four different constitutional offices, including the term as a delegate to the Virginia State House in November of 1873. He was active politically as tension built over several years, village residents pushed back on the federal government's efforts to close the village. By the 1880s, when eviction was inevitable, the residents continued to fight electing the committee to petition the government regarding their unique situation. John Syfax was chosen to present the committee's views to the Secretary of War. In a letter to the secretary in 1888, Syfax asserted that the freed persons in Arlington should be compensated for the improvements which they had made to the property and requested a settlement of $350 for each homeowner on the estate. The government would eventually compensate residents a total of $75,000. The appraised value of dwellings on the property in 1868 and the contraband fund tax which had been collected during the Civil War. And finally closing Friedman's Village in 1900. By 1900, every resident of Friedman's Village had been relocated and the village ceased to exist. Many former residents stayed in the Arlington area, moving to nearby black neighborhoods such as Halls Hill and Green Valley. While others formed communities like Queen City, located near where the Pentagon now sits. In their new neighborhoods across Arlington, the former Friedman's Village residents maintained close bonds and kept alive the memory of Friedman's Village. Those who lived in Queen City though faced yet another displacement during World War II when the government demolished their neighborhood to make a way for the roadways connected to the Pentagon. Here at Arlington National Cemetery on the site of the former Friedman's Village, of course there's nothing left. But what do you see when you come out to this spot in the cemetery? When I'm walking the cemetery, when I spend time here as a volunteer, the first thing that I see when I overlook the cemetery, I actually see the plantation. I see the plantation that my SyFax family members actually toiled on. I also see the space that was once indigenous land, in which people use this as part of their range. I also see this as space where the SyFax's were given property and had a chance at freedom and to establish a family and be in a space. But I also overlay all of the headstones that we see here and think about how all of these pieces of our history fit together. And it's an extremely complex history when you think about the number of years that has gone from the time the plantation was established in 1802 until today. It is. It's a long history. It has so many different parts and out here with you, I can really get a sense and a feeling of the Freedman's Village. But so for our visitors who we hope will come out to this site on their own one day, it's very hard for them to actually try and figure out what was here on the landscape. Could you, if possible, visualize for us a bit what we would have been looking at when the village was here? I'd be happy to try. Thank you. First of all, this space is not what you might imagine in terms of a cemetery. It's not a flat space. It's actually, there's some relief here. We're actually standing on a hillside. And if we look to our right here down the hill, there's a low spot out here at one time that was a pond, a small lake that was here. If we swing about the other way, over here coming from my left to our right were a series of duplex houses. There were probably somewhere between 75 and 100 houses that were established kind of equal increments, multiple families lived in these spaces, and it goes on down the hill here, and then there's a type of a fish hook that goes off to the right. This space is where families began to figure out what freedom was all about. They had a space with a lake and a space that had a hospital and schools and churches. It was a community. And that gets lost in this space because it no longer exists as a visual reminder of what was here. What we have today is the headstones of those who helped serve the country. But it doesn't make the history of the Freedman's Village any less important in terms of understanding when it was here, why it was established, and what took place during that period of time. So really what we're talking about is a story of national significance. We have these all important graves most visually present, but we also have the history of enslavement on this property. We have the story of the Civil War and the transition to freedom, emancipation, the struggles of reconstruction, and everything that happened at the end of the 19th century, and of course into the 20th century. And we really have to dig into that here at the cemetery. If you're willing, I'd be really grateful if you could share with our viewers a bit about why this story is so personally important for you so they can understand it on a more human level. Absolutely. Well, first of all, I'd like to invite people to come to this space so they have an opportunity to experience this space. We think that that's really an important part of this. But for me, as visitors come here, I want them to be reminded of the fact that this has not always been a cemetery. It has been a space in which people were enslaved. People were forced to do labor without having a choice. There was exploitation of women in terms of not having a choice, in terms of how they lived their lives. And it's also a way for us to think about how our country has managed through a very tough period in time. You know, slavery was one period, but this also talks about so many of the conflicts that existed. People in every one of our nation's skirmishes are laid to rest in this space. So as we think about the plantation first, Freedman's Village, you know, that existed in terms of 40 plus years that existed here. And then the cemetery, there is so much to experience here. And so as I encourage people to come, I want them to think, become lifelong learners, to think about this beyond the graves that they see visually on the landscape and the other things that exist in this space. Thank you, Steve. That's such a powerful testament to the importance of history and how this history, it's not just a bunch of facts in a textbook or maybe on your high school history test. This is connected to people's lives, their experiences, and their families. And it's in many ways still alive today. And listening to you as we look out here at these graves and as we think about in our minds eye what used to be here with the village, it makes me as a historian think about those words in order to form a more perfect union. There was a lot of imperfection happening, but here on this small spot of Arlington, we can see the constant struggle of our nation and people fighting to make the nation more perfect, whether they were formerly enslaved people who seized their own freedom or the service members who were buried right here from subsequent time periods. Absolutely. Out here at the edge of the cemetery now. And it was really important to you that we came to this spot. Why is that? This space is extremely important to me. As we think about this wall that shows the demarcation between the cemetery and Fort Meyer Henderson Hall, joint base Fort Meyer Henderson Hall. It's a special space for me because before the base expanded into this area, this entire expanse that we're looking at here, 17 acres is what belonged to the Syfax family. And so it was in this space that Mariah and Charles Syfax and their 10 children set up their households. Ultimately, they were pushed off of this land twice. Once in 1863, when the land was confiscated by the federal government for the lack of taxes being paid by the Lees because they weren't here physically, they also took the Syfax property and it was not returned to them until William Syfax, their second child, first son, actually helped to introduce legislation that provided for the property to be returned to his mother, Mariah Syfax. Wow. The property was lost again in 1944 when joint base Meyer Henderson Hall was looking to expand its space and they coveted this 17 acre space as it wrapped around the southwestern corner of the cemetery. The other thing about this corner is I call this Syfax corner and the reason I call it Syfax corner is because it's the furthest north corner and it's an intersection point between joint base Meyer Henderson Hall, also the space and where the Syfax is lived. It's also part of the cemetery but it's also the northernmost point where the Freedman's village touched adjacent to the Syfax property. So this space I think is worth interpreting as we think about this space and telling the history of how all of these things have come together. There are multiple stories that really kind of speak to this space. So the audience is not the end of our time with you. We are going to come back on for the live question and answer portion of the webinar. Steve and I will be there with our colleagues from the National Archives so you'll have the opportunity to ask any questions of us that you will to join in this discussion and in the meantime we really hope you enjoy the next segment from the National Archives and make sure to check out our website ArlingtonCemetery.mil where you can also access our education page so you can really dive into those education materials. Good afternoon. My name is Damani Davis. I'm a reference archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration and also Narra's subject matter expert in records relating to the African-American experience. Today I'm pleased to speak on Narra's records relating to the Freedman's Village in Arlington, Virginia. What do we have at the National Archives related to the Freedman's Village? The bulk of the records that we have related to the Freedman's Village are in Record Group 105, the records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land, better known as the Freedman's Bureau, and also in Record Group 92, records of the Office of the Court of Master General. Of these, the records of the Office of the Court of Master General generally document Freedman's Village from its earliest days, from its inception to its closing, spanning from approximately 1864 to 1889, whereas the records of the Freedman's Bureau only exist during the period in which the Freedman's Bureau had jurisdiction over Freedman's Village, spanning from 1865 to 1872. The Freedman's Bureau records were initially published on microfilm from the original textual records, and for the records pertaining to Freedman's Village, they are on two separate microfilm publications. The first microfilm publication is M1055, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia, and the second microfilm publication is M1902, Records of the Field Offices for the District of Columbia. For also Freedman's Village was in Arlington, Virginia during this period, the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia had jurisdiction over Arlington, Virginia, and other surrounding nearby counties in Virginia. These Freedman's Bureau records, as with all Freedman's Bureau records, have now been digitized in collaboration with the National Archives. There was a digitization project with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and FamilySearch.org in which the records were digitized and made available on those two sites, and later ancestry.com also digitized the records and made them available on their site. M1055, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia contains one main entry that contains records relating to Freedman's Village. And here we have examples of these particular records. The records essentially just show it lists the names of tenants at Freedman's Village at that time. It gives the occupation of the individuals, or the occupation of the head of the family. It gives the statistical information on the household composition, meaning how many males and females are in each household with the totals, and further information on the individuals at Freedman's Village. In the last column, it gives remarks pertaining to each person. For instance, for each head of household, it states whether that person was employed at the village or elsewhere. And here's just another example of the same type of document from July of 1867, providing some of the same information along with other statistical information pertinent to each individual at the village. The bulk of the records relating to Freedman's Village within the Records of the Freedman's Bureau are in M1902, the Records of the Field Offices for the District of Columbia, simply because the field offices typically generated the most information or the most local information within the Freedman's Bureau, since they were the front lines and they had more contact with their constituents. So on this particular slide, we have examples of Freedman's Village categorizing the residents based on class numbers. So class number one is listed as dependent Freed people living at the village without authority. So essentially individuals who were living at Freedman's Village, who didn't have formal permission to be there. Class number two, names of persons able to earn their support who have dependent relatives residing at the village. And as you see, a list of names of each individual gives their ages and so forth with other remarks. Class number three, names of dependent Freed people living at the village subject for discharge, meaning individuals based on some issue, they were possibly going to be discharged sometime soon from the village. And class number four, names of persons resident at the village renting houses without any visible means of support. And again, it lists each person by name, age, and other and provides other remarks for some of them. Okay, here's another example of the types of records relating to individuals that you can find within those various records. Persons and articles employed and hired at Freedman's Village, September 1866. Here lists each individual, gives their list their occupation, provides information on their salaries and so forth, and provides other relevant information to their employment, you know, various remarks and so forth. So any genealogists or someone who's an academic who's investigating the general lives of individuals at Freedman's Village, they can use these records of employment to get certain, certain relevant information. Here we have a tabular statement showing the number of acres of land on Arlington Estate rented to Freed people. They give, here you see it gives each person's name, it gives the number of acres of land that they're renting and the dollar amount of the land that they're renting. Another one monthly report of changes in the list of dependents during the month of January 1868. And here we see, again, it gives individuals, it lists individuals by name, gives their age and so forth. So again, very valuable information for genealogists or other researchers. Okay, now besides those types of records that I surveyed so far, which lists individuals and gives statistical information on individuals, there are also a lot of correspondence that shed, that can shed light on Freedman's Bureau of Policy at Freedman's Village, along with providing some insight into the experiences that some of the individuals were having at Freedman's Village. This particular document reads, addressed to Captain James A. Bates. Sir, I have the honor, respectfully, to state that two freed women now living at Mr. Edmond Weston's of this county report that each has a son at Freedman's Village near Washington, from whom they were separated during the war, and who they are anxious to have restored to them. Their names are Lewis Primus, age 14, and Aaron Launey, age 16. The case is respectfully submitted with the request that they be forwarded to their homes. Destination, Taylorville. Okay. So again, just a very simple document, but again, it provides, it lists the names of individuals by name and age, but it also highlights the reality that many formerly enslaved people were going through during this period in which many had been separated during the Civil War itself. Here's another document, again, just listing individuals who are being admitted to Freedman's Village. This particular document reads, addressed to Captain A. Lawrence, superintendent of Freedman's Village. Captain, I have the honor to forward John Carter and Kitty his wife for admission to the home at the village. Please admit there. So this is a very simple document, but it shows the process of someone being allowed to be admitted to Freedman's Village. But again, valuable information for someone who's a descendant of residents of Freedman's Village and that it gives the names of this husband and wife, along with the date of their admission or the notification of them being admitted to Freedman's Village. School attendance reports. You have very valuable information for those who are interested in education at Freedman's Village in general, or at Freedman's Village in particular, or the beginnings of education for formerly enslaved persons in general. This particular record just gives the statistical information on the amounts of students in June and July of 1865. List the numbers by name and so forth in primary school for each month and in higher school during each month of that year, June and July. Again, valuable statistical information, although it doesn't name the students in this particular record. Another type of statistical record that you can find within the records of Freedman's Village. Try monthly return of employees, laborers, and dependents at Freedman's Village VA from January 1st, 1868 to January 31st, 1868. Again, statistical information that can be valuable for someone who's researching, who's interested in records relating to the employees and laborers at Freedman's Village. Here's another slide that just gives some insight into some of the occurrences at the village, some of the social conditions, some of the health conditions, and so forth. It's just a standard report that's being addressed to the superintendent of the village at that time. This particular report addressed to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rayburn, the Surgeon-in-Chief in D.C. reads, Sir, it will be seen by my accompanying report of the sick that the preponderance of gains since last weekly report is among the children, the prevailing complaint being cholera, infantum, a mild form, usually, and diarrhea. The aggregate sickness is the same as last week. The sanitary condition of the village is good. The police force is kept constantly employed on the streets and grounds. All wards of the hospital, hospital buildings, and tenements occupied by dependents are regularly slept, regularly swept, deli, and scrubbed twice a week. It is difficult to keep rented houses in so good condition. The sinks and privies are regularly cleaned and sprinkled with line. The springs are in good condition and affording abundance of pure water. The hydrants are also working properly. The women are all removed from the old home to allow the workmen to complete the building. By reason of the removal by death of one of the carpenters and the transfer of the foreman to the service of Major Brown, the work on the old home is not progressing so rapidly as desirable, yet I hope to have the building ready for occupancy by the end of the present month. At the several mess houses, I am accustomed to regularly have for breakfast, fish and bread, and tea and coffee on alternate mornings, three mornings and a week mackerel, for dinner, mixed vegetables, and on alternate days, pork and fresh meat and potatoes and beans. For supper and tea and coffee alternately, and bread and molasses, and on Sunday evenings, butter and addition. This dish table is varied to suit circumstances. To the sick hospital and elsewhere is furnished milk, butter, eggs, chicken, and such fabricatious dish as prescribed. Here's another example of the types of records you can find. This particular report addressed to Brigadier General Charles H. Howard, who's the Assistant Commissioner for D.C. General, in answer to your communication from the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for D.C. of the 15th, addressed to the superintendent in charge of this village requesting an estimate of clothing that will be required for a gratuitous distribution during the approaching winter. I have the honor to report after careful calculation that there are now 265 female adults, 236 male adults, 88 male children, and 95 female children. Aggregate 684 dependents at this village and from the present condition of these people, there is no probability that the number will be less during the winter. These dependents with a probable increase will require the following articles of clothing and enlist those various articles down towards the bottom of the letter. Another letter from November 4th, 1867, addressed to Brigadier General Charles H. Howard. General, in answer to your communication of October 30th, 1867, in relation to a lady in Georgetown desiring to procure a colored girl 11 to 13 years old to live in her family, I have the honor to report that I can see no chance to get a girl for that lady on conditions specified by indenture. The people here look upon that mode of hiring as a species of slavery and no argument I could use would change the opinion they had formed. They will not bind their children. There are a large number of children of the proper age in the village. Very respectfully, your obedience servant, J.C. O'Neill. And what this sort of highlights is, in many records that we have within the records of the Freedmen's Bureau and other related records, such as some of the records we have relating to slavery in the District of Columbia. In the immediate years after emancipation, there was this option of indenture or apprenticeship that some individuals desired to use as a form of sort of employment. But in general, it was resisted by the formerly enslaved population because they thought from their perspective, it was just another name for enslaved individuals. That's the way that's how they felt about it. And so this is common in a lot of these records. So this correspondence here just highlights some of the perceptions that the formerly enslaved individuals at Freedmen's Village had towards that institution. Here we have another form of correspondence. Again, providing information on an individual and some of the social conditions that existed during this period. Addressed to General Charles H. Howard. Sir, a boy named Anthony Diggs, supposed to be 13 years of age, was found in the streets of Washington and taken to the Colored Orphans home by Mrs. Bigelow. The boy's mind is not in a healthy condition. We think it is not well to keep him at the home and request that he be sent to Freedmen's Village. So again, just showing some of the informational individuals who were admitted at the Village, meaning they had some type of dependent status that allowed them to come under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of the Village at that time. Okay. And this final report gives a general overview of the condition at the Village during the time that it was written. The color persons to whom land has been rented the past season have with fewer exceptions, cultivated the land well and raised good crops. And those who have been industrious in earning what they could when not engaged on their land will have sufficient to make their families comfortable for the winter. The other people of the Village and vicinity have most of them dependent upon jobs of work here and there. And as there has not been employment for all, there are many who have secured by a scanty living through the summer and have nothing laid up for the coming winter. Among the dependents are many women with children. Most of these women are not able to work but are living here on a scanty ration and idleness and rags because they cannot on account of their children and scarcity of work get employment in this vicinity. The number of inmates of the home for the older and infirm has greatly increased. Many have been sent here from various places. They are generally comfortable provided for and clothing is being made to supply the needy. The number of deaths deaths in the Village and vicinity has been unusually unusually small. And there has been very little sickness except chills and fever, which has been very persistent for the last few months. And it goes on given some of the social conditions and so forth at the Village and other issues. So that concludes the records associated with the Freedmen's Bureau. For those who were who are interested in nervous records in the years prior to the Freedmen's Bureau's administration of Freedmen's Village in the years after the Freedmen's Bureau's formal administration of Freedmen's Village, you can consult some of the correspondence that we have within the records of the Office of the Court of Master General. Of particular here at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. where we hold the textual records, there's entry 225, consolidated correspondence files 1794 to 1890. Other records from this general record group consists mainly of maps and plans related to Freedmen's Village. And you can find those at our cartographic branch at the National Archives at College Park. But for the textual records that we have here at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., I'm just going to give these two final examples of these records. This particular document is from 1887 and it highlights those final years in which the formerly enslaved persons, the free people, were removed from Freedmen's Village and dispersed to other areas of Arlington County and other areas of Virginia to which they may have relocated. Of course, we know that many of the residents were highly displeased with this. They felt betrayed and some of these final residents attempted to argue their case and they enlisted Mr. John B. Sifax to argue on their behalf. And here's the petition letter that we have from John B. Sifax addressed to the custodians of the Freedmen's Village at that time. But as we know from history, their petition was unsuccessful and the final residents of Freedmen's Village were ultimately removed and were forced to relocate elsewhere. So again, within record group 92, you can find some of that final correspondence covering the years after the Freedmen's Bureau's formal administering of Freedmen's Village. Thank you. This concludes my presentation. Any questions that you have regarding any of the records highlighted within my presentation, you can address them. I'll be pleased to address your questions during our formal question and answer session. Thank you. Thank you to all of our speakers and thank you for joining us for today's presentation on the history of Freedmen's Village jointly sponsored by Arlington National Cemetery and the National Archives and Records Administration. We will now move on to the question and answer portion of today's event. I'm Amber Forrester and I will serve as your moderator today. We have a lot of great questions that have come in already, so please continue to submit them in the chat box on our YouTube page. I do have one clarifying question. Someone submitted a question about their great-grandmother that I'm not sure I understand and I want to make sure we address it. So if you can just rephrase that and resubmit it, we will get to it in a few minutes. We'll start with a question for Damani. Do the records at NARA document all years of the Freedmen Village's existence? Well, the records document the bulk of Freedmen's Village's existence, but I think perhaps the earliest months we don't have anything, but generally within Record Group 92, you can find, as far as the documents that I've seen, they generally span from those records span from 1864 until, I think, 1889. But outside of the records highlighted here, there may be some other military records, particularly old army records and so forth that may document the initial establishment of Freedmen's Village. In general, you can find the bulk of the years documented here. Thank you. And Damani, can you also speak a little bit on the relationship between the Village and the Freedmen's Bureau? Well, keep in mind that the Freedmen's Bureau basically took over functions that the Union army initially embarked upon. So as Allison touched upon the issues facing the formerly enslaved persons referred to as contraband, even prior to the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, the U.S. Army was already sort of taken in some of these individuals, trying to accommodate them, find work for them. And with the Emancipation Proclamation, some of them were able to actually join the military, but the Freedmen's Bureau is going to grow out of that. So at the end of the Civil War, a lot of those functions that the Union Army was initially providing, the Freedmen's Bureau became its own independent bureau to formally proceed with some of those same functions, providing relief, trying to accommodate these recently free, this recently free population and so forth. So the Freedmen's Bureau is going to come in and take over a little bit later after Freedmen's Village had already been established. And again, the Freedmen's Burrows, its own tenure is going to end prior to the end of Freedmen's Village. So it's just covering the main period of activity. And even with that, even though the Freedmen's Bureau ended or formally ended in 1872, the bulk of its operations actually ended several years earlier than that. So most of the records that you find pertaining to Freedmen's Village and Freedmen's Bureau in general are going to kind of peter out in the late 1860s. But outside of Freedmen's Bureau, again, you can some of that documentation is going to proceed further within the records of the Quartermaster General, which was a part of the U.S. Army. All right. I'm going to give you one more question, Damani, before you can take a little break. How do you find land records of those who lived and owned land on government property on Freedmen's Village or other land now owned by the U.S. government? We're not going to have any land records of individuals living at Freedmen's Village, meaning like formal land records, meaning the federal land records that we have here within the Records of the Bureau of Land Management, the Record Group 49. Because those records generally document land that people acquire through various federal land programs, such as the Homestead Act, and they mainly pertain to what we call public land states. As some of the documents that I highlighted in the presentation show that kind of touched upon land and who was running land here and there, some of that information can be provided within the Records of the Freedmen's Bureau and so forth, but there's not going to be a separate collection or category of records within the general federal land records that someone can go to and find, for instance, someone's land, case file, and so forth. So it's mainly going to be just records documenting who was living where and household information and so forth, but no property records that someone can connect with an individual. Thank you, Damani. The next question I think is for Allison. Do you have a map overlay that shows the boundaries of the village on the current property? Thank you for that great question. So we do have one. We showed it in the video, I believe, at a couple points, and I actually want to say that it's something that was created by my friend and colleague here, Steve Hammond. So that is the work of Steve. So I don't know, Steve, if you want to talk more about that map that you created. There's a show historic maps that you can look at how the land has transformed over decades of time. I color coded that so that we could highlight where the SyFax property was and where the Freedmen's Village was. One of the things that we, for the first time, have shown here today was that map of Freedmen's Village, which is normally shown, and it's actually was printed upside down the way it was oriented. And you may have seen in that last space where we showed the overlay of Freedmen's Village is we actually rotated that map to show how that, remember I talked about the fish hook that existed there as the house is wrapped around, fit into that space. There are, in fact, some records. There are some maps that are available there, I would say, in the, I'm thinking of what's the, there at the capital, the Library of Congress. Thank you very much, Allison. If you look at the Library of Congress, you'll also find a number of maps there as well. Steve, we have a couple more questions for you. Sure. The audience is wondering if you have written any books or working on any books about the village. They would like you to write a book. Great question. I've been, that question has been posed to me a number of times. I have lots of bits and pieces that fit nicely into a book. When we think about how that land there at Arlington has been transformed over the last several hundred years, not to discount the Indigenous people who lived on that site. I have been working on a manuscript that I hope to publish, but I'm also working on a document that I hope will become some kind of documentary that will speak to the Syfax history. That's great. The audience is also wondering if you lead groups or tours around the cemetery and how they could arrange that with you. Well, thank you. I'm honored for you to ask that question. I actually serve as a docent for the National Park Service at Arlington House, and I'd love to talk to people that come up and talk about the history of Arlington National Cemetery. I don't lead tours of the cemetery itself. I try to work with Allison, the historian there, as we think about how the trolley moves around the space and gives people information, and just this last spring, I actually met with the Guild of Professional tour guides to give them information that helps them know how to reach me, as well as how the kinds of information that would help them do a better job to share information about the tours they lead in spaces like this. What I can say though, that's a great question, and our history office at Arlington will take that into consideration. We really wanted to start off with this webinar because it's available to everybody, wherever they live across the country and the world, and it will be recorded, but our office does lead occasional tours of Arlington National Cemetery. You can find out about them on our website and social media. We're doing one next month on March 22nd about Civil War nurses, so we can add that to our list of future tours to do a collaboration with Steve and really dive in to the history of Freedman's Village on site. Just bring your water bottle and your hiking boots because Steve and I like to get out there. I would say Arlington, the historian's office does a great job with these walking tours out there, so definitely look that up on their website. Great, thank you. Steve, what happened to the graves of the Syfax family members who were buried on their family's property when they were forced to leave? Well, that's part of this up and down story of the Syfaxes. Once the land was condemned in 1944 and the property was taken over by the federal government to expand joint base Meyer Henderson Hall. The graves of about a dozen Syfax families were exhumed there and they were actually taken to Lincoln Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland. It's a frustration for me when I think about that, that Mariah and her family were enslaved in that space. Her father is still buried in that space and yet Mariah, who lived just on the other side of that stone fence, was not given the respect of being in that space and her remains and those of her family were removed and taken to Suitland, Maryland about 15 miles away out of the state, I would say. Thanks Steve. Alison, we have a couple questions for you. The first one is, are there any signs posted at the cemetery to indicate the location and history of the Freedman's Village? Thank you for that question. At the moment, there are not. We are working on something related to that but I just want to give our audience a little bit of a disclaimer. Since Arlington National Cemetery is a historic site on the National Register of Historic Places, there are a lot of different regulations and laws that we have to adhere to whenever we put a sign up in the cemetery. So I don't want anybody to think that the lack of a sign there right now is a show of disrespect. It's merely that it's something we're really taking our time with, doing slowly, working with descendants like Steve on and making sure that we comply with all of those regulations that enable ANC to maintain the landscape that it has today into the future. So stay tuned. You can always check on our website but we see this webinar as really a foundational element because we can get into a lot more detail here and on our online materials which I'll talk about later than we ever could on a sign which is really only accessible to people on site. Our office is really trying to make sure that we reach every American and global visitors and tell them this story. So even if you never get to Arlington National Cemetery, you have resources you can access from home. I'll add one thing to that, Allison, is that outside of the cemetery on the south side of the cemetery, just across the street, there was a park that was established there, a very small park, kind of a sitting area. There's a little playground there but there actually is a placard there that speaks to Freedmen's Village that is definitely worth seeing. It's difficult to get to right now because there is a lot of expansion work going on with the cemetery expanding to the south but the park will continue to be there and be a memory of the Freedmen's Village. You know, as long as we choose it to have be there. And Arlington County also dedicated a bridge called the Freedmen's Village which it's outside of cemetery property. We didn't have anything to do with it but if you're local to the area, you may have seen it. It's quite close, I think, to the hotel next to Joint Base Meyer Henderson Hall. I think it's a Sheridan, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, it's a Sheridan. So that bridge on both sides of it actually has some metal plaques that depict scenes from Freedmen's Village and you can go, you can see it and it's very beautifully illuminated at night as well. That actually feeds right into our next question. Are there other sites at Arlington National Cemetery that can help people learn about emancipation, reconstruction, and civil rights? Thank you for that question. The answer is yes. So many. You could spend days or weeks if you're with me and Steve exploring all of those sites at Arlington National Cemetery. We can tell the story of the American experience of all Americans from the inception origins of this nation through today. So you can go to the site of Freedmen's Village, of course. You can also go to section 27, which although it's section number 27, it's actually the earliest section of the military cemetery. And in addition to those early military graves, our first Civil War burials, we also have a part of section 27 that contains the graves of freed men, women, and children who lived in the Washington, D.C. area, not at the Arlington Freedmen's Village, which is very confusing. They did not live on the property, but they were still freed people who lived in this region and were eventually buried on the National Cemetery site. And as you walk through those graves, you can read the headstones that say citizen, civilian, unknown, the headstones of children and babies, and you can really get a sense of that struggle for formerly enslaved people. And if you really want to dive into that story, our education program, which I'll ask one of my colleagues to throw the link there in the chat, has an entire module in the African American Experience section about the history of those freed people in section 27. So for students of all ages and lifelong learners, you can actually get into the primary source records that show you how these people suffered and died. So you can explore all of that in section 27. Of course, we have the graves of numerous civil rights heroes. We have the grave of Medgar Evers, who was assassinated for his work with the NAACP, as well as his brother, who's in one of the Columbarium courts. We have the grave of Thurgood Marshall. We have graves of African Americans that were segregated. Arlington National Cemetery was segregated by both race and rank until 1948, which was when President Truman ordered the desegregation of the United States military. So to this day, you can actually go to these sections and learn about African American service members and see the vestiges and the evidence of segregation. I could talk all day about this. I'm going to throw out one section there. Steve knows where I'm going with this. Right in the area of Syfax Corner, I believe it's section 19. Hopefully I'm not wrong. That's right. Okay. That is where there is a segregated section of African American service members who served and died in World War One. And in that section, right by Syfax Corner that Steve was talking about, you can read the headstones and understand and see the different kinds of military work that segregated service members were assigned to. So you can do that while learning about Reconstruction, Syfax Corner, and Freedman's Village, all on that same little plot of land. Thank you. I would just add that there's one of my ancestors that's very there. His name is Douglas Syfax, who's in section 27, who was a member of the United States color troops, was assigned to Arlington, and it probably helped to dig trenches and prepare to put up some of the military structures that were in that space. So there are a tremendous number of things to explore in this space. And most people that walk in there, they see the Arlington House at the top of the hill. They don't realize that that's a national park service space outside of the cemetery that's inside the cemetery. But there is so much to explore there, and we encourage people to come and become life-learning explorers in this space. Thank you. We have so many great questions coming in. I hope we can get through all of them. I'm going to go back to Damani. Let's see. This person is asking if Freedman's Hospital, which later became Howard Hospital, is connected to any of the schools in DC and Virginia. Do you have any information about that? It isn't necessarily any direct connection. During that time Freedman's and Freedman's, which the term was just a generally used term for the formerly enslaved population, but oftentimes there were some linkages through the Freedman's Bureau. Many of the institutions in the area, if they weren't formally established by the Freedman's Bureau, oftentimes they had some type of connection with the Freedman's Bureau and funding and so forth. Schools, educational institutions, and so forth. So there's not necessarily, in every case, a direct connection between institutions with the name Freedman's, but oftentimes it was a general connection because they were all kind of supported by the same benevolent institutions, Freedman's Bureau. So there was a lot of cross interconnections on that larger level, but as far as a direct connection between Freedman's Hospital and Freedman's Village or whatever they did, no, they were two separate entities. That's helpful. Thank you. Oh, go ahead, Allison. I want to just add to that is, I think for a lot of us today, we hear the term Freedman's and we think maybe it is all just one organization or agency, but this, as Damani really explained just now, was a term that applied to a larger community of people spread across not just the DC area, but really across the greater South. So the Freedman's Hospital, I'm pretty sure it predated our village that was here at the cemetery, but you can find vestiges of this word throughout records throughout different sites and landscapes, and it all applies to the same type of people, but they were often in separate institutions or communities. Thank you. Let's see, during the presentations, you mentioned that the people living in the Freedman's Village were renting the land. So can you explain who exactly owned it and are there any records detailing the rents collected and where those funds were applied? Okay. As far as who owned it, that goes into some of the controversy that Steve touched upon with the SyFax family and so forth. Oftentimes, when you go through the records and when you look at some of a lot of the secondary sources related to Freedman's Village, it seems that many of the residents believed or felt they were led to believe that they had fulfilled certain obligations to actually become owners of their property, but when outside entities desired that land, the ultimate conclusion was that they had no legal ownership of the land, that there was controversy on whether the Lee family still has some type of ownership of jurisdiction over the land legally or did the federal government through the United States military on the land and so forth, but the final analysis or the conclusion of everything, it was determined that the free people on that land had no legal ownership of any of the property. Even if oftentimes they felt that or believed, had been led to believe that they had fulfilled certain obligations to have ownership of it. And that's something that's not unique to Freedman's Village. You look across the South in the years after your emancipation, you see that repeated in the South Carolina and Georgia with Sherman's special field order, order number 15, when many of them were on land and believed that they had fulfilled obligations to have formal ownership of the land, but when it came down to it, that wasn't the case. Oftentimes the land was given back to the former slave holders, plantations family and so forth, but so that's the case also with Freedman's Village. Legally and officially it was concluded that they had ownership of the land and they were only renters for a temporary period of time. I would simply add that some of the people that live there were actually making improvements to their homes, which kind of helped them feel vested in what they had done here. And so the fact that they were led to believe that this could be a space for them someday. I think we also have to remember that this was intended to be a temporary space and so although people, I mean it was transient in some ways and that people were moving through, but it was also became a homestead for many people who were on the plantation and were in that space and they felt that it was indeed home and so when they were moved off, it made for a lot of anxiety and frustration. The federal government did provide some payment for what they had spent time on, but the interesting thing about that is many of those people actually had to pay rent, which went into a fund to help manage the place. So it was almost like they were being repaid for the money that they had helped invested in the space. So as I said during our segment, it's a very complex history and it's definitely worth taking a deep dive into this to pick it apart to understand how these pieces and the gears fit together. And I think it was a part of the previous question that I forgot to address. I think it was mentioning records, detail and rents that were collected. At this time, I'm not aware of any records that someone can use like a sort of accounting type of project within the records of the Department of Treasury or anything. As far as I know, and this isn't definitive, most of the records relating to the rent were highlighted, but some of those examples that I showed were within the Freedmen's Bureau itself, they had their own internal accounting or documentation of people paying rent and so forth and having an account of the sum total of monies and so forth. So the answer to your questions kind of depends on what type of records you're looking for. Outside of what I've seen within the records of the Freedmen's Bureau, I'm not aware of any detailed records documenting the payments and so forth that someone can go back into and connect with an individual or families and so forth at this point. Thank you. Continuing the topic of compensation, was any compensation given to those who were forced to leave Freedmen's Village and was there a mass shutdown of the village in 1900 or was it more gradual? In terms of a shutdown by 1900, most of the residents had already been relocated. So while that is the year that it was officially closed, most people had already left by then and yes, the government did compensate as Steve said and I believe we gave the exact figure in our presentation, I want to say $250, $350, but as Steve said, that didn't cover all of the improvements that people had made. Thank you. I'm going to send this question to Steve, but feel free to jump in if anyone else has more information. As you've researched Freedmen's Village, have you come across any other descendants and what has been their reaction to your research and your findings? Great question. In the work that I've done, it's been a little bit tangential, the fact that the Syfaxes lived adjacent to that space. I know that some of those ancestors actually worked or taught at the Freedmen's Village to try to help people develop trades so that they were skilled at managing households and things. In terms of finding other descendants, there have been a few. I think it's amazing really, I think it would be worthwhile doing a deep dive in this space to understand how many people were in that space who have ancestors that still live in the area today. I think we would be astonished to understand how many, you know, the footprint that it remains of Freedmen's Village that exists there. I can tell you for a fact that there are, in fact, people that are in the space that probably don't know or haven't thought about the connections that they may have to Freedmen's Village, but there are indeed many. And we at Arlington National Cemetery are looking to connect with descendants. So if you are a descendant or you know somebody who is, you can reach out to us on our website. We have an area where you can send us a message. We would love to hear from you. We want to connect. I know that there are, as Steve said, many deep familial connections still in Arlington County, but even if you don't live in Arlington County, so spread the word and help us out. We'd be very grateful. I would just simply add here. Can I add one more thing in terms of piggybacking on what Alison just said? I think a number of the historic sites here, I think of Arlington as a historic site, but I think of Arlington House and Mount Vernon and Montpelier and places of colonial history in this area are really working hard to try to connect with the descended community. Recognizing that our history doesn't stop at 1799 in the case of George Washington, or in the December of 1863 when we decide that we're going to actually open up the Freedmen's Village or initiate Arlington National Cemetery. And we really are beginning to look deeply at how our history is inter-wolven and interconnected, which I think is extremely important as we work to understand where we've been and where we're going. Thank you, Steve. You set me up perfectly for our last question. Alison, what do you want our audience or your visitors to understand about Freedmen's Village during your ongoing 160th anniversary of Arlington National Cemetery's creation? Thank you, Amber. We are really excited to be commemorating the 160th anniversary of Arlington National Cemetery this year in 2024. And this webinar is a part of that commemoration, along with many other events, which you can learn about on our website. What I want people to take away first and foremost is that the history of Arlington National Cemetery does not begin in 1864 when that first military grave was dug. The history of Arlington National Cemetery stretches many years prior to 1864. It includes the history of Freedmen's Village. It includes the history of Arlington Plantation, those who lived and were enslaved there. It includes all of the uses of this land, including Indigenous land, and uses that we don't have any evidence of right now. The property lines and the timeline are not restricted. One of the things that makes Arlington National Cemetery so special and such an honorable place to memorialize our nation's fallen service members is you can truly tell every American story here. So I would urge visitors, don't restrict yourself. Think creatively when you come here, visit different sites, honor the graves of people who are famous, people who are not famous, and understand that just as important as those Medal of Honor recipients are and just as important as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the grave of President Kennedy are sites like the Freedmen's Village, places like Section 27, and really far off parts of the cemetery with stories of Americans you've never heard of but who were just as consequential in their own way in shaping our nation. James Parks. James Parks, thank you Steve. You read my mind as usual. James Parks was born enslaved at Arlington Plantation and during the Civil War he became one of the first among those who worked for the U.S. Army helping to create and build Arlington National Cemetery. His work along with others was essential in the evolution of this site to the renowned military cemetery that we know today and he was actually given the honor by the Secretary of War who was basically the same as the Secretary of Army or Secretary of Defense at the time that upon his death he was allowed to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery even though he was a civilian and he was given military honors at his funeral in recognition for his service to the nation. James Parks' story is just as important as any other story at Arlington National Cemetery and during this 160th we urge you to think about all of those different people. Absolutely, thank you Allison. Those are all the questions we have time for today. Thank you to all of our panelists and thank you to everyone who joined us for this virtual presentation. On behalf of the panel Arlington National Cemetery and the National Archives and Records Administration we appreciate your interest in America's documentary history and we hope you join us again. Thank you and this concludes our presentation.