In Summer 2022, the DISC Seed Grant funded project, “Locating, Cataloging, and Assessing Historical Land Ownership Data in Rural African American Communities in Western Oklahoma,” employed a graduate research assistant to assist with transcribing and logging census data and handwritten records from the General Land Office database.
The data identify household information of rural African American farmers in the late 19th century and provides evidence of the documents necessary for farmers in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma to obtain a land lease from the federal government as part of the Federal Homestead Act.
Heidi Dodson, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher on the project notes that the data transcribed over the summer will be useful in understanding several unknowns, like “whether the number/percent of African American women homesteaders in Kingfisher County was consistent with studies from other states and territories; the number and percentage of mortgaged farms; and will provide a point of comparison with other counties” in Oklahoma territory, pre-statehood.
