Esaw Lawson: Agreement With Freedmen, Sharkey Mills Plantation in St. Helena Parish

 

Agreement with Freedmen
Henry Lawson and son Esaw Lawson

Key Facts from the Document

• Document Title: Agreement with Freedmen
• Type: Labor contract (Freedmen’s Bureau record)
• Date: May 11, 1868
• Location: Parish of St. Helena, State of Louisiana
• Plantation:  (Sharkey Mills)  Plantation 
• Parties Involved:
  • Employer: Henry Lawson (F.)
  • Laborers (Freedmen):
    • Isaac Lawson
    • Charlotte Lawson
    • Alice Lawson
• Context:
  • Agreement made under authority of the Freedmen’s Bureau following the Civil War
  • Concerns employment, wages, rations, housing, and labor expectations
  • Indicates family labor structure (“these three laborers are children of the said Henry Lawson and work together as one family”)
• Purpose: Establishes terms for agricultural labor, compensation (including share of crops or wages), and obligations of both employer and freed persons
• Record Series: Freedmen’s Bureau labor contracts
• Archive Marking: “NARA 257” (National Archives identification)