1865-1870 Louisa County Personal Property Tax lists with Freedmen and their residence.

1865-1870 Louisa County Personal Property Tax lists with Freedmen and their residence.

Locations of Freedmen after the war

The attached files are based on the 1865-1870 Personal Property tax lists for Louisa County now at the Library of Virginia. At this time, only information on people of color has been extracted and presented here. The value of these lists to researchers is that the personal property tax lists from 1867-70 required that all freedmen give the name of their employer or the person on whose property they are residing. Although it cannot be assumed these persons are former owners, it does indicate proximity/relationship and perhaps a good place to begin a search for pre-1865 records.

The personal property owned by the freedmen (males and females over 21) has also been transcribed. Additionally, each male was charged a capitation tax, starting with 28 cents in 1866 and increasing to $1 by 1870.

An effort has been made to compare these lists with the Freedmen's Bureau Field Office papers from Louisa County to cross reference labor contracts or other documents which may help make a connection between freedmen and former enslavers. Neither the images of the original property tax lists nor the Freedmen's Bureau files are online but are available in the Sargeant Museum.

Louisa County Historical Society

Records of the Louisa County Clerk of Court at the Library of Virginia and from microfilm of the Freedmens Bureau Field Offices at the National Archives.

Louisa County Historical Society

1865-1870