Abner Bryan went to court in Houston County and adopted his youngest sister as his ward. Laura was eighteen years old. Their father had been dead for nineteen years. The estate that had funded her schooling, her clothing, her board in Perry and Forsyth and Gordon, was now settled and distributed. Abner made himself responsible for what came next. The court costs — petition, letters, recording, bond, order and judgment, revenue stamps — total $8.75, paid to W.T. Swift, Ordinary of Houston County.

The guardian's return credits Laura's account with one third of cotton sales — $533.10. The 62 bales sold through Harris & Ross in March 1866 for $8,751.90 are distributed among the plantation's interest holders. Laura's one-third share is $533.10. It is the largest single credit in her guardian's return — her portion of the last great cotton sale made under the J.A.B. brand.

Voucher 11: C.S. Bryan receives $1,000 from Abner C. Bryan, guardian for Laura A. Bryan, April 9, 1866. The payment is made the day before the Final Distribution and the day before Abner formally becomes Laura's guardian. The purpose is not stated in the receipt. Cornelius signs it. The ledger records it and moves on.

Harry King (colored) receives $4.16⅔ for smith work — March 17, 1866. He signs with his mark. B. Smith was hired through J.R. King's blacksmith operation from 1859 through 1865 — six years of skilled labor brokered through the same shop. Harry King is the first named freedman doing paid skilled work documented in the estate's post-war records. The smith work continues. The accounting has changed.

The guardian's return records $288.33 paid for labor for the year 1866. No names, no breakdown — a single line on the account. It is the first post-emancipation labor line in the estate record. The plantation that built its output on enslaved labor for thirty years is now paying wages. The amount and the anonymity of the entry are all the record offers.