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• 1 media/Book cover.jpg 2024-09-13T02:14:57+00:00 An Introduction to the Social Networks of Cherokee Freedmen Applicants 41 image_header 2025-03-05T21:39:41+00:00 Individuals of African lineage who were formerly enslaved by the Cherokees, known as Cherokee Freedmen, and their descendants were required to apply for enrollment in nineteenth- and twentieth-century census rolls to receive allotments and benefits as Cherokees. The Cherokees had been in contact with enslaved Africans since at least the sixteenth century. At the time the Cherokees were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in 1835, they had enslaved a large number of Africans and their descendants, who also accompanied them on the Trail of Tears. Later, the enslaved Africans joined the Cherokees in their dispersal across the Confederate South at the outbreak of the Civil War. Although the Cherokees voluntarily emancipated those enslaved by them during the war, even before the emancipation of enslaved Africans in the United States, the Freedmen had to overcome many hurdles to secure their recognition and rights as Cherokee citizens. These steps included applying to enroll in census rolls that determined Cherokee citizenship, and therefore eligibility to receive benefits from the Cherokee Nation. The experience of the Cherokee Freedmen at the intersection between Native American and Black identities reveals a parallel between the ways in which the two races have been severely demoted under white supremacy. Although foregrounded in nineteenth-century politics, the Freedmen’s struggle for recognition as members of the Cherokee Nation continues to this day.
  
  Enrolling as Cherokee Freedmen: Social Networks of Rejected Applicants charts the history of slavery in the Cherokee Nation and of the Cherokee Freedmen by shedding light on the stories of individuals who attempted to achieve Cherokee citizenship by enrolling in a number of census rolls issued in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. While the visualization of these applicants’ social networks in this project features individuals whose efforts to enroll for the Dawes Roll as Cherokee Freedmen were ultimately unsuccessful, the documentation and records of their attempts at enrollment, including photos and digitized archival material that includes transcripts of oral testimonies, reveal the social networks of Black individuals that supported them before and after their bids for enrollment. 
  
  The multimodal affordances of a digital publication make it possible to visualize the social networks of the rejected Cherokee Freedmen applicants in addition to their role in Cherokee history, bringing visibility to the lives and experiences of the Cherokee Freedmen–both legally accepted and denied, despite their erasure from much documented history. The social networks created by the freed Blacks are proof of their broad and interracial relationships in the Cherokee Nation, regardless of their legal recognition as citizens. The visualization in this project furthermore aims to offer a less hierarchical experience of digitized archival materials, enhanced by Scalar’s non-linear and structurally-flexible framework.
   
  Through exploring this project, readers can:

  • Trace the history of Cherokee slavery and the Cherokee Freedmen.
  • Explore a gallery of the Cherokee Freedmen applicants.
  • Follow the migration and movements of Cherokee Freedmen across the American South.
  • Read more about the mission of each Cherokee census roll and its process and problems.
  • Learn how to decipher the Dawes Enrollment Card.
  • Discover more about the project’s history, goals, and acknowledgments.

  How to Navigate

  Readers are encouraged to explore the project by jumping around the pages, links, and resources however they like. The intention is to facilitate a decolonized knowledge experience for users that does not follow a strict order or path through the content. You can also find the “main navigation for the project” at the top left corner of this website, accessible from any page, to navigate between different sections of the project. 
  
  Because this project focuses on rejected applicants for Cherokee Freedmen status alongside officially recognized Cherokee Freedmen, I use “Cherokee Freedmen” specifically for those recognized as such in the Dawes Roll. To indicate the formerly enslaved people whose status was undetermined by the Cherokee Nation before their enrollment in the Dawes Roll, I use “freed Blacks” or “freed people.”