“Duplicate No. 22

United States of America,
United States District Court, District of Virginia,
Clerk’s Office Norfolk, Va., s.s.

I, James Hicks, of the county of Elizabeth City, State of Virginia, do solemnly swear or affirm in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion, with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.

Subscribed and sworn to this 5 day of June. A.D. 1865, before me.
W. H. Berry. Clerk.

United States of America,
United States District Court,
District of Virginia,…Clerk’s Office, s.s.

I, William H. Barry, Clerk of the United States District Court, for the District of Virginia, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the original Oath of James Hicks on file in my office.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said Court, at the City of Norfolk, in said District, this 29 day of January A.D. 1866
W. H. Barry. Clerk.”

Source: research.archives.gov 

Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands 

The post Slavery in the United States
[Text] James Hick’s Reclaiming Land From the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1865 appeared first on Witnify.

A young Booker T. Washington writes about the day of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

“As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom…. Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.”

The post Slavery in the United States
[Text] Memory of the Emancipation Proclamation appeared first on Witnify.