This tag was created by Hai In Jo. 

Enrolling as Cherokee Freedmen: Social Networks of Rejected Applicants

Colly Albert

Colly Albert was born and raised in the Cherokee Nation. Although Colly’s name is written in multiple ways in the collection, he testified that “Colly Albert is the way I always sign my name.” He had been enslaved to Nancy Bushyhead (Cherokee), sister of Chief Dennis Wolf Bushyhead Sr. 

Colly and Martha Albert had two children born before their official marriage. They married about three years after their return to the Cherokee Nation. Colly later joined the church, which had not given him permission to live there until he was married.
During the war, Colly worked on a farm and drove a team to make corn crop in the Choctaw Nation, down on Red River. When they returned, they first relocated to Caleb Starr’s place, then occupied by Ellis Harlin. Colly was hired by Ellis in 1867. J. W. Hughes became acquainted with Colly Albert and his family in the fall of 1869 in Sequoyah, and hired them in 1870 for two to three years to chop and pick cotton for him, make rails, and fix fences.

Colly did not apply for himself, but testified for Robert Barnes, his nephew-in-law. 

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