"Now atter de wah us didn' eben know us was free causn' Mis' Ma' Ann hadn't neber tole us but Grandma went to de Freeman's Bureau an' got us livence to leave. An' us lef' off'n de Cooper place an' farmed on halves fo' some udder peoples." Mary Ann Ervin Kitchens, Ex-slave of William Cooper in Copiah County, Mississippi
Freedmen Labor Contract - List of Freedmen
Planter: Caroline Gibson
County: Simpson County, Mississippi
Date: August 01, 1865
Freedmen Bureau Laor Contract - Microfiche Number 47-056
Slave Narrative of Mary Ann Kitchens
All sources found at Mississippi Department of Archives and History.