Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 113

29. Alfred H. Stone, Material Wanted for an Economic History of the Negro (N.p., n.d.). (16 p.)

A Rosetta Stone for the Stone Collection. Mr. Stone explains that he is attempting to gather material for “an economic history of the negro,” and divides the subject into three periods: 1) from the beginning of slavery to the outbreak of the Civil War, 2) during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and 3) “from 1880 to the present time” [1905?]. His introduction is followed by 105 queries that describe the type of material he was looking for. For example, under the heading of “The Ante-Bellum Period” he asks, “What were the amusements and recreations of slaves, and what restrictions were placed upon them as to the use of firearms?” Under the heading of “Free negroes,” he asks, “To what extent did they become slaveholders and planters?” He asks, “How far were plantations disorganized, and how did the negro work in absence of owner and overseer?” under the heading “During the Civil War.” And as far as “Reconstruction” was involved, Mr. Stone asks along with twenty-two other questions, “Aside from political considerations, what part did the Freedmen’s Bureau play in the adjustment of the new economic relations between whites and negroes?” These queries provide the framework around which he built his collection. (The Stone Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson has other copies of this pamphlet in volumes 92 [no. 2] and 100 [no. 24].)