Biographies of more than 1,500 African Americans who held political office in the south have been compiled into a book, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (rev. ed.). These biographies are being attached to the men’s profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree. The biographies were thoroughly researched and compiled into the book by Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize winner, highly regarded American historian, and DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University.
The men in the book held responsible positions ranging from justices of the peace and constables to state office holders, convention delegates, and US Congressmen. Many risked their lives to attain these offices. The biographies hold a treasure trove of information about these unsung heroes' lives before, during, and after the Civil War—the men’s occupations, property ownership, military service, and more.
In 2021, Foner authorized FamilySearch to add biographies from his book to individuals in Family Tree. Among the resources he used as he researched these biographies during the 1990s, Foner accessed microfilms and other materials available in the FamilySearch center in Los Angeles, California.
Why FamilySearch Added This Collection
Based on conservative estimates, these remarkable men are the ancestors of at least 1 million living African Americans. Historians have largely overlooked the remarkable contributions of these unacknowledged African American heroes.
“The 1,500 men described in Freedom’s Lawmakers are an inspiring but largely unknown group of African American heroes. During the brief window of Reconstruction (8 December 1863–31 March 1877, a little over 13 years) each held elected or appointed offices that, in many cases, were not held again by Black Americans until the 1960s or beyond,” said Bruce Brand, Vice President of Institutional Partner Development for FamilySearch International.
During 2022, about 8 senior volunteer missionaries in the Records Operations Center spent several months attaching these biographies to the individuals already in the Family Tree and adding the names and biographies of those who were not already there. They did this by creating stories within the Memories for each person. Some of the stories and biographies include photographs of the men.
Why Look at This
There is a shortage of Black history in our history books. Their stories are important to their hundreds of thousands of descendants and the American people at large. In addition to the inspiring opportunity that these records and biographies provide on Family Tree right now, having these men and their stories in Family Tree is a vital part of the experiences we hope to develop in the coming years in which people can have a discovery experience due to their relationship to these ancestors.
How It Was Accomplished
Freedom’s Lawmakers Revised Edition was available in print only, so missionary volunteers scanned the pages and used computerized Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to create digital files.
Using the scanned and OCR text, the volunteer missionaries:
- Added to the tree each of the individuals not already there.
- Added each person’s complete biography from the book as an individual memory attached to each person in the tree.
- Where possible, also added entries in the 1870 US Census as sources. In many of the biographies, the book references the 1870 census.
The full individual biographies are attached to the men in Family Tree and are found in their memories link. An album has been created that shows thumbnails of all the entries and each links to the person of interest.
Go to FamilySearch Memories, and on the drop-down list, click Find.
Click Search Text, and type in Freedom’s Lawmakers.
For a list of people whose biographies include the words “Freedom’s Lawmakers,” click Search. Unclick all but “Albums” on the left side of the page to narrow results and find the album created for this project.
Click Search again, and select the album entitled Freedom’s Lawmakers.
Select people of interest from the display of all the entries to see the entire biography. The name of person to whom the memory is connected will appear in the People box at the right of the full entry. Click on that name to view his person page.
You will be amazed by the stories of resilience and perseverance of the men who were able to hold public office during Reconstruction. Because of Eric Foner, and FamilySearch missionaries, their stories will live on and provide inspiration for future generations of American heroes.
