Isaac Simpson – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary Isaac Simpson, formerly enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia, had a reputation as an honest and industrious man. In 1878, the U.S. Southern Claims Commission special agent who investigated his claim against the government for property taken from him during the Civil War wrote, “The claimant bears a good reputation for industry and trustworthiness. […]
Isaac Jenkins – Southern Claims Commission
Southern Claims Commission Petition By Isaac Jenkins Summary of Claim Isaac Jenkins’ claim was denied for restitution for property he said U.S. soldiers took from him during their foraging in Liberty County in 1864, but his claim contained interesting details about his life after the Civil War. Jenkins was in his early 20s when emancipated […]
Prime LeConte – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary Primus LeConte, a formerly enslaved 61-year-old man, testified in 1873 that U.S. soldiers took property from him when Sherman’s Army raided Liberty County, Georgia, in December 1864. His testimony was given to support his claim against the U.S. Government for $578.25 worth of property — a bay mare, a sorrel mare, 10 hogs, […]
George Powell – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary George Powell, a 37-year-old formerly enslaved man who had lived in Liberty County, Georgia, all his life, testified to representatives of the Southern Claims Commission in 1878 that in December 1864 Union soldiers belonging to Sherman’s Army had taken $220 worth of property from him, including 15 hogs, 18 fowls, 25 bushels of […]
Prime Hargraves – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary Prime Hargrave, a 75-year-old formerly enslaved man who said he had lived in Liberty County, Georgia all his life, testified to the Southern Claims Commission in 1877 that he was present when U.S. soldiers from Sherman’s Army were foraging in Liberty County in December 1864. They took from him six cows, two bacon […]
David Stevens – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary “When I first heard of the war I was on the Yankee side…I was on the side of course the side of the United States there was no other way for me.” David Stephens (also spelled Stevens) had been the enslaved “driver,” or foreman, for Captain Abial Winn for about 9 years when […]
Jacob Golding – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary On a cold morning in December 1864, a group of enslaved African Americans were sitting down to a wedding feast in the yard at Joseph Quarterman’s plantation in Liberty County, Georgia, when the soldiers from Sherman’s Army rode up. “Well, boys, what have you got?” Marshal Cuthbert remembered them saying, before they sat […]
David S. Baggs & Isabella Baggs – Southern Claims Commission
Southern Claims Commission Petition By David S. Baggs & Isabella Baggs In the early 1870s, David Spurlock Baggs filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission, asking for compensation for $5000 worth of horses, mules, cattles, hogs, corn, rice, potatoes, fodder, bacon, and rails for fuel taken by U.S. soldiers when Sherman’s Army raided in […]
James Stacy – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary The Southern Claims Commission was impressed by James Stacy’s detailed account of how he earned the property U.S. soldiers took from him during Sherman’s Army’s raid on Liberty County, Georgia, in December 1864, and awarded him $179 in compensation. Stacy, a formerly enslaved man who was 39 when he gave his testimony in […]
James Anderson – Southern Claims Commission
Claim Summary The Southern Claims Commission case files offer the opportunity to distinguish two James Andersons, both previously enslaved, who lived in Liberty County in the 1870s. This claim, #21414, was for a James Anderson who was identified himself as being 63 years old during his 1877 testimony. He said he had lived in Liberty […]