When the U. S. Congress amended its laws concerning Union troop enrollment in 1864, a new clause required that,
when a slave of a loyal master shall be drafted and mustered into the service of the United States, his master shall have a certificate thereof, and thereupon such slave shall be free; and the bounty of one hundred dollars, now payable by law for each drafted man, shall be paid to the person to whom such drafted person was owing service or labor at the time of his muster into the service of the United States. The Secretary of War shall appoint a commission in each of the slave States represented in Congress, charged to award to each loyal person to whom a colored volunteer may owe service a just compensation.... [SOURCE: United States Congress, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. 13 (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1866), pg. 6, “An Act to amend an Act entitled ‘An Act for enrolling and calling out the National Forces, and for other Purposes,’ approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.”]
This law authorized the creation of the Slave Claims Commissions, representing the six Union-controlled slave states: Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee (under Union occupation), and West Virginia (established as a free state in 1863). The Slave Claims Commissions were previously addressed in this column.
A new book has recently been published transcribing the register of claims of the Kentucky Slave Claims Commission:
RECORDS OF THE SLAVE CLAIMS COMMISSIONS, 1864-1867
Volume Two: Register of Claims of the Kentucky Commission
The Register of Claims of Kentucky Commission contains 2,475 claims entered before the Kentucky Slave Claims Commission between 26 November 1866 and 6 April 1867. The claims were recorded in a tabular register which has been reproduced in this volume. This register records the name of each slave-owner who applied for compensation from the federal government, and the given and surnames (generally at the time of enlistment) of each slave claimed.
This record set is almost unparalleled in its importance to those researching African-American genealogy in these six states. Very few other records provide direct evidence identifying the former owners of freedmen. As mentioned often in this column, identifying a former slave owners is the first step to being able to research the family history of one’s enslaved ancestors.
The claims in this volume have been indexed by the names of the claimants and by the names of the slaves. This 316-page book is available for $19.99 paperback and $15.99 downloadable PDF e-book.
For more details including purchasing information, visit http://haitfamilyresearch.com/SlaveClaims.aspx
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