Article of Agreement between William D. Floyd and Susan Burnett, Fannie Burnett, Betsy Burnett, Julia Burnett, Dick Burnett, and Ellen Burnett
Dublin Core
Title
Article of Agreement between William D. Floyd and Susan Burnett, Fannie Burnett, Betsy Burnett, Julia Burnett, Dick Burnett, and Ellen Burnett
Subject
African Americans, labor, race relations
Description
This November 1865 contract between William D. Floyd, of Lunenburg County, and six members of the Burnett family is a fairly typical agreement by which a landowner allowed workers to farm his land in exchange of a share of the crop that the workers produced. It contains a penalty clause if Floyd or any of the workers failed to fulfill his or her part of the agreement. The final provision of the contract allowed the parties to appeal to the Freedmen's Bureau to annul the labor contract. Many such contracts contained similar language, indicating that agents of the bureau often took part in negotiating labor agreements.
Creator
William D. Floyd
Source
Lunenburg County Freedmen's Contracts, 1865-1866, Lunenburg County Court Records, Local Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.
Date
November 28, 1865
Contributor
Library of Virginia
Rights
CC BY-SA
Format
JPG
Type
Printed form and manuscript
Identifier
15_0732_004
Coverage
Lunenburg County, Virginia
Citation
William D. Floyd, “Article of Agreement between William D. Floyd and Susan Burnett, Fannie Burnett, Betsy Burnett, Julia Burnett, Dick Burnett, and Ellen Burnett,” Remaking Virginia: Transformation Through Emancipation, accessed October 31, 2025, https://virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/items/show/532.