Ray City History Blog

Tax Records of Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA as listed in the 1870 Tax Digest

Freedmen listed in the 1870 Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662 tax digest

There is ample primary source evidence that the Freedmen were ready to exercise their rights as citizens of the United States.

The Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment freed all slaves in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans in the South faced new difficulties: finding a way to forge an economically independent life in the face of hostile whites, little or no education, and few other resources, such as money … In fact, many African Americans were quite prepared for freedom, as they demonstrated in 1865 and after by demanding their civil rights, the vote, the reunion of their families, education and economic opportunities.  – Library of Congress

But for many southern whites, emancipation in no way implied citizenship or equality for Freedmen. Herschel Vespian Johnson, Antebellum governor of Georgia and former owner of 115 enslaved people, espoused the Southern resentment of the US Government’s attempts to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Note: Freedmen were not citizens until the passage of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in Georgia July 21, 1868.

“Emancipation is a small evil compared with that arising from the attempt on the part of Congress to regulate the social, civil and political status of the freedmen in the several states.” – Herschel Vespian Johnson, former Governor of Georgia ~ September 12, 1868.   

Freedmen of Lowndes County:

•   658 Georgia Militia District
•   661 Georgia Militia District
•   662 Georgia Militia District
•   663 Georgia Militia District
• 1246 Georgia Militia District

The 662nd Georgia Militia District, also known as the Clyattville District, occupied the southwest corner of Lowndes County.  Following the Civil War and Emancipation there were 200 African American freedmen living in the 662nd District; Only 152 white men are listed in the district.  Of the freedmen, only three had achieved land ownership by 1870: Harvey Pemberton, age 50; Buck Jones, age 59; and William Jones.

Some of the freedmen in these rolls may have been present at the Booby Clift Affair, when a group of young white men attempted to bomb a gathering of freedmen attending a political rally at the Valdosta Courthouse on Saturday, April 4, 1868.

Several African American men in this district immigrated with their families to Liberia in 1872, including Andrew Turkett, Jefferson Bracewell, Eli Ponder, Lewis Hart, Henry Jones, Caesar White. Also immigrating to Liberia from the Freedmen of the 658 Georgia Militia District of Lowndes County were Jordan Lemmon, Aaron Miller, London Wright, and Andrew “Anderson” Obey, and their families.

As a finding aid, the tables presented here are organized alphabetically by Name of Freedman. Images of the original pages are provided below.

Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662, 1870 Tax Digest

Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662, 1870 Tax Digest [2 of 5]

Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662, 1870 Tax Digest [3 of 5]

Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662, 1870 Tax Digest [4 of 5]

Freedmen of Lowndes County, GA Militia District 662, 1870 Tax Digest [5 of 5]

Related Posts:

• Freedmen of Lowndes County: 658 Georgia Militia District
• The Booby Clift Affair in Valdosta
• Judge Richard Augustus Peeples
• 1894 African-American Voter Registration at Rays Mill, GA
• Richard McGowen, Slave Boy of Ray City
• Jim Crow Cars on the Georgia & Florida Railroad