52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Taxes

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of April 9, 2018, is Taxes.

I had planned on writing about the property tax records for my second great grandfathers who lived in Lowndes County Georgia, but while I was searching these records, I came across lists of Freedmen and their employers. 

I spotted my maternal great grandfather Remer Young's name as an employer to several Freedmen.  I wrote about Remer and some of his former slaves in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - The Old Homestead. I recognized the name of one of his employees, William Johnson, whose photograph is in that blog post.

As I continued scrolling through, I found a record of the Freedmen who worked for J. R. Young. This might be John Remer Young, son of Remer. 

I couldn’t find an exact date for these records, even with scrolling backward and forward, looking at pages 1 and 726 (the last page of this digitized record) and pages in between. Since these two particular Freedmen records are near the end of the digitizations, they could be from 1877. Below are the transcriptions of the names of the Freedmen and a digital copy of the record. 

Employed by Remer Young on the former Mineola plantation in north Lowndes County, Club House District, Militia District 658:

H. Stafford
William Johnson
R. Darcy
J. Moore
Robert Moore
Abe Robberson
M. Butter
E. McKinnon

H. Stafford had stock animals worth $2 and household and kitchen furniture worth $5. William Johnson had stock animals worth $8 and household and kitchen furniture worth $5. There is no property noted for the other employees.

Freedmen working for Remer Young, possibly 1877, Lowndes County, Georgia, Clubhouse District, Militia District 658, from Georgia Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, Lowndes 1871-1877. Digitized on ancestry.com

Employed by J. R. Young on land in south Lowndes County, Clyattville District, Militia District 662:

Ned Johnson Jr.
Jerry Slater
James McKinney
John Young

Ned Johnson, Jr., had stock animals worth $7 and household and kitchen furniture worth $5. James McKinney had property valued at a total of $158, very high compared to the other Freedmen employees: stock animals $120, household and kitchen furniture $10, plantation and mechanical tools $6, and other property $22.

Freedmen working for J. R. Young, possibly 1877. Lowndes County, Georgia, Clyattville District, Militia District 662, from Georgia Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892, Lowndes 1871-1877. Digitized on ancestry.com

As the above record for Remer Young indicates, at least one of his former slaves, William Johnson, worked for him after emancipation. William was Remer's former body servant. These Freedman tax records would be another way to research enslaved ancestors to find out who their former owners might have been. 

Catherine