Summary: Freedmen’s Bureau correspondence regarding ownership of a horse disputed between freedman Jessie Love and white planter William Jones (1865)
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Jones William
Submits statement in regard to Horse etc claimed by Jessie Love Colored
Liberty Co. Nov. 19th 1865
Col. H. F. Sickles
Sub. Asst. Comr. Bureau R F & A L
Colonel
Being unable to attend at your office in person, I respectfully ask permission to present the following statement.
Sometime in February last Jessie Love stated to me that his wife was to be carried out of this county, and that he wished to accompany her. I made no objection to his leaving, and he was absent from my plantation until the latter part of May. During his absence the negroes that remained with me had voluntarily planted and worked a crop of corn and rice, under the same arrangement as during former seasons. Upon his return I stated to him that he had gone away of his own accord, that I did not need his labor now, and that it would not be just to the other negroes for him to come in now and work upon the same shares with them, as it was too late to plant an additional crop, and they were able to tend all that had been planted. He then said that he had nothing to eat, and I told him that if he wished to remain here and would work, I would feed him. Under this arrangement he commenced work and continued on my place, though working irergularly, until sometime in August, when he left the plantation voluntarily none of the crop having then been gathered, and hired himself, as I am informed, to a storekeeper in Riceboro. He did not return to my place for over two months, during which time the whole crop had been harvested without his assistance in the least. On last Monday I commenced threshing Rice. He did not come to me to ask for employment but went into my barn yard and commenced getting ready to thresh. Waiving all notice of this impudent and defiant conduct, I directed my foreman to state to the negroes that if they were willing to divide their portion of our joint crop with Jessie, I would not object to his working with them, but that I had no need of his services and would not give him any of my part. During the morning he left my premises, and the next I hear of him is in company with the guard that arrived this day with your order. Under this statement of facts, which can be abundantly substantiated, I submit that this man has no just ground of complaint against me, and ask that this case be dismissed. I would also state that in obedience to a former order from your office, being then as now very ill, I sent Mr. B.S. Screven, my son in law, to make the above statement, and upon his return he informed me that Capt. Stone, at that time representing you, told him that this case was settled. This was before Jessie’s coming to my barnyard last Monday, and made him upon that occasion in every respect a trespasser. In conclusion upon this past of the case I would also state as additional evidence of my kind feeling toward this man, that last May, I gave him seed rice, and permission to plant it upon any portion of my unoccupied rice lands.
In regard to the horse which he claims, my title to it is the same as the horses mentioned in Mr. A.S. Quarterman’s certificate, to which your attention is respectfully called. The facts stated therein can be proved also by Mr. W.J. Mallard, whose certificate would have also been obtained, but for the difficulty of reaching him. Jessie’s horse was given to me at the same time & for the same reason as those three horses, and would have been included with them in the certificate sent, but for the fact that up to the time of signing it, he, J. had never made any claim upon me for the horse. The horse for which I swapped the one he now claimed proved to be the property of another colored man having a wife upon my place, to whom I returned it, and it had since died.
I am, Colonel, very respectfully Your Obedient Servant
W. Jones
Read over to Mr. Jones in my presence and signed by him.
C. P??? C. A 12 Mo Regt
Liberty County Nov’r 19th 1865
This certifies that on or about the fourth (4th) of February 1865 I was present at the plantation of Mr. William Jones and saw Titus Jones, Frank Jones and George Jones deliver each one horse to the aforesaid William Jones as a “bona fide” gift without any conditions whatever. These horees were each of them broken down, and totally unfit for use and were given up because they would have been seized by the Confederate authorities and would have been a total loss to them.
Aug. Quarterman
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U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Records, 1865-1878, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, 1865-1872, M1903; digital images, Ancestry.com [https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62309/images/004139867_00220 : accessed 29 Jul 2023], M1903, roll 82 (Affidavits and Papers Relating to Complaints, June 1865-Apr. 1867), images 217-222.