This tag was created by Hai In Jo. 

Enrolling as Cherokee Freedmen: Social Networks of Rejected Applicants

Charles Bolden

Charles Bolden (Charley Bowen/Charles Boland; Free Black) was the father of Martha Albert and Jenny Albert. J. W. Alberty (Cherokee by blood) recalled that he was biracial and free, and followed his wife Nancy Whitmire (Black) and their whole family when they were sold to Dillingham (American) as George and Johnson Whitmire were dividing up their property in 1847 or 1848. Alberty attested that when Dillingham moved to Texas with Nancy and the family in 1850 or 1851, Charles followed them despite being free himself. According to Martha, Charles Bolden had been working on a plantation in the South and digging wells for people as a free man at that time. 

Martha attested that the family returned to the Cherokee Nation in August 1866, settling on Ellis Harlin’s place. In 1870, J. W. Hughes had hired Charles Bolden and his family to chop and pick cotton for him, make rails, and fix fences for two to three years. Hughes claimed that Bolden said that he was a part of the Cherokee and not enslaved. He also remembered Bolden claiming to have been in Texas, where his wife and children were sold, and remaining there until the end of the war. 

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