"...forthwith"

This is Ocean Springs Mississippi in the early 21st century.

My family 'paper trail' as property began here in the 1830's/40's.

Here we were held in Bondage. Here we lived as Slaves.

This until Union forces entered the town in 1864.

A few years ago, my sister Sylvia Lewis visited researching our family history.

She found documents about our great-great grandparents.

The search for more continues.

Reading the history of Ocean Springs Mississippi.

The town where my Salves ancestors were held in bondage.

I found that on this day in 1864 the Army of the North landed and eventually freed the Slaves there including my great-great grandmother ‘Tempy’. The ‘New Orleans Weekly Times’ on March 18, 1864: “On Tuesday, February 11th, the gunboats, USS Narcissus and the USS Cowslip, went on an expedition up the Back Bay of Biloxi in command of Lieutenant Commander W.F. Fitzhugh.

At 10 o'clock A.M. they put to port at Ocean Springs.”

Family history sez Union troops entered the town.

No stories of fighting. After some days the Union commander read a proclamation from the courthouse steps which still stands..

He declared all ‘Bondsmen’ within the township and surrounding areas were:

“...forthwith emancipated.”

My family was free.

(Posting this here March 22nd, 2023.)