1866 Land Document for Freed Slave in South Carolina Post Emancipation Civil War
Documents relating to land owned by an African American woman in Walterboro, South Carolina, 1866-1885. Includes manuscript survey of 44 1/2 acres, accompanied by a 4 page manuscript document (folio sheets), with revenue stamps. ************ The land in question belonged to Mary Bird Gibson, who was the daughter of Richard Gibson, "freedman." The land survey is dated August 11, 1866 and includes a drawing of the plot - partly in color. There are three pages which place the land in trust for Mary Bird Gibson and her children, Mary Bird and Hamilton, signed by Clark Bates, C.E. Bates (his wife), W.J. Reid, and witnesses. The final page is an amendment to the document dated April 2, 1885. A very unusual document relating to African American land ownership in the South after Emancipation and during Reconstruction.
