The Freedmen's Bureau: Reconstructing the American South After the Civil WarThe Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, better known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the spring of 1865 to help white and black Southerners make the transition from slavery to freedom, while securing the basic civil rights of the ex-slaves. It failed to accomplish what its creators had hoped, but its history tells us much about why Northerners and Southerners, whites and blacks, approached Reconstruction in the way that they did and why that failure occurred. The Freedmen's Bureau: Reconstructing the American South after the Civil War is a succinct summary of the agency's history accompanied by key documents that illustrate Northern ideology, black expectations, and white Southern resistance. Topics of the day, including labor, education, violence, politics, and justice place the federal agency within the larger context of post-Civil War history. |
Contents
A Bureau Superintendent Reports on the Organization | 7 |
Organizing the Bureau | 11 |
Bureau Men Face Reconstruction | 26 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abandoned Lands Absalom Baird agency agency's agents and officers Alabama appointed Arkansas Army assistant commissioners assumed black and white black education Bureau agents Bureau law Bureau men Bureau of Refugees Bureau officer Carnesville civil authorities civilian claims colored Commissioner Howard complaints Congress contracts County courts crops Davis Tillson destitute district Document duty efforts emancipation employers ex-masters ex-slaves expected federal Fisk free-labor system freed freedmen Freedmen's Bureau freedom freedpeople Georgia historian Homestead Homestead Act Johnson July jurisdiction justice Kentucky labor Louisiana March Military Reconstruction Mississippi North northern O. O. Howard officers and agents Oliver Otis Howard Orlando Brown plantation planters political President protect reau relief reported Rufus Saxton schools secure slavery slaves South Carolina subassistant commissioner subordinates superintendent supervision teachers Tennessee Texas throughout the South tion Virginia Wager Swayne wages white Southerners Worth County Yankee