Freedmen's Bureau

Examples of Freedmen's Bureau in the following topics:

• The Freedmen's Bureau

  • The Freedmen's Bureau helped former slaves adjust to freedom by providing food, housing, education, healthcare, and employment prospects.
  • The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was a U.S. federal government agency from 1865-1869 aided distressed freedmen (freed slaves) during the Reconstruction era of the United States .
  • They had worked hard to establish schools in their communities prior to the advent of the Freedmen's Bureau.
  • Office of the Freedmen's Bureau, Memphis, Tennessee. (1866) From Harper's Weekly
  • The Freedmen's Bureau aided distressed freedmen (freed slaves) in 1865–1869, during the Reconstruction era of the United States.

• The Freed Slaves

  • During this time, the federal government also attempted to provide aid to black Southerners through the Freedmen's Bureau.
  • The bureau was created through the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln, and was intended to last for one year after the end of the Civil War.
  • The most widely recognized of the Freedmen's Bureau's achievements is its accomplishments in the field of education.
  • They had worked hard to establish schools in their communities prior to the advent of the Freedmen's Bureau.
  • By 1866, missionary and aid societies worked in conjunction with the Freedmen's Bureau to provide education for former slaves.

• Lincoln's Plan and Congress's Response

  • A Republican coalition came to power in nearly all of the Southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free-labor economy, with support from the army and the Freedmen's Bureau.
  • In March 1865, Congress created a new agency, the Freedmen's Bureau.
  • The Freedmen's Bureau was the largest federal aid relief plan at the time, and it was the first large scale governmental welfare program.
  • With the help of the bureau, the recently freed slaves began voting, forming political parties, and assuming the control of labor in many areas.
  • The Freedmen's Bureau helped to start a change of power in the South that drew national attention from the Republicans in the North to the conservative Democrats in the South.

• Johnson's Plan

  • Johnson ordered that land forfeited under the Confiscation Acts of 1861 and 1862, which were passed by Congress and administered by the Freedmen's Bureau, would not be redistributed to the freedmen, but instead returned to pardoned owners.
  • This helped freedmen force planters to bargain for their labor.
  • However, because freedmen lacked capital, and because planters continued to own the tools, draft animals, and land, the freedmen were forced into producing cash crops, mainly cotton, for the landowners and merchants.
  • Northern officials gave varying reports on conditions involving freedmen in the South.
  • Johnson vetoed the renewal of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill in February 1866.

• The Radical Record

  • Radical Republicans in Congress, led by Stevens and Sumner, opened the way to suffrage and legal equality for freedmen.
  • By 1866, the Radical Republicans supported federal civil rights for freedmen, which President Johnson opposed.
  • In January 1866, Congress renewed the Freedmen's Bureau, which Johnson vetoed in February.
  • Although Johnson sympathized with the plights of the freedmen, he was against federal assistance.
  • Congress also passed another version of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which Johnson again vetoed.

• White Terror

  • The White League was a white paramilitary group started in 1874 that worked to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and organizing politically.
  • Made up of well-armed Confederate veterans, the group worked to turn Republicans out of office, disrupt their political organizations, and use force to intimidate and terrorize freedmen to keep them from the polls.
  • The League assassinated the men before they left the parish, together with between five and twenty freedmen (sources differ) who were witnesses.
  • The Klan attacked black members of the Loyal Leagues and intimidated Southern Republicans and Freedmen's Bureau workers.
  • Agents of the Freedmen's Bureau reported weekly assaults and murders of blacks.

• The Spread of Public Education

  • In the era of reconstruction, the Freedmen's Bureau opened 1000 schools across the South for black children.
  • Schooling was a high priority for the Freedmen, and enrollment was high and enthusiastic.
  • Overall, the Bureau spent $5 million to set up schools for blacks.
  • By the end of 1865, more than 90,000 Freedmen were enrolled as students in public schools.

• Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

  • "Scalawags" were white Southerners who supported the party, "carpetbaggers" were recent arrivals from the North, and freedmen were freed slaves.
  • Some were abolitionists who sought to continue the struggle for racial equality; they often became agents of the federal Freedmen's Bureau, which started operations in 1865 to assist the vast numbers of recently emancipated slaves.
  • The bureau established schools in rural areas of the South for the purpose of educating the mostly illiterate black population.
  • Many carpetbaggers were businessmen who purchased or leased plantations and became wealthy landowners, hiring freedmen to do the labor.
  • During Reconstruction, scalawags formed coalitions with black freedmen and Northern newcomers to take control of state and local governments.

• The Battle over Reconstruction

  • 'Reconstruction' addressed how the eleven seceding states would regain self-government and be reseated in Congress, as well as the civil status of the former Confederate leaders and the Constitutional and legal status of freedmen.
  • The civil rights of freedmen and whether they should be given the right to vote were under special consideration.
  • The first bolstered the protection that the Freedmen's Bureau gave to blacks, and the second was a civil rights bill that gave blacks full citizenship.

• Reconstruction in the South

  • A Republican coalition came to power in nearly all the Southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free labor economy, with support from the Army and the Freedman's Bureau.
  • Johnson ordered that land forfeited under the Confiscation Acts passed by Congress in 1861 and 1862 and administered by the Freedman's Bureau would not be redistributed to the freedmen but instead returned to pardoned owners.
  • Radical Republicans in Congress, led by Stevens and Sumner, opened the way to suffrage for male freedmen.
  • New Republican lawmakers were elected by a coalition of white Unionists, freedmen, and Northerners who had settled in the South.
  • The amendments were directed at ending slavery and providing full citizenship to freedmen.