Civil War Freedmen: Freedmen's Bureau Records In The Aftermath
In the years following the American Civil war, fought between 1961 and1965, many freedmen lost their homes, got separated from their families, and lost all claim to the little property they had. Although nearly four million slaves were freed, towns and cities in the region lay in ruins and the economy was destroyed. Faced with the challenge of restoring social order and providing assistance to the distressed freedmen, the U.S. government came up with the Freedmen's Bureau, also known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Established in March 1965 by President Abraham Lincoln, the main aim of this Bureau was to provide relief effort to the former slaves from the south; and to facilitate the social reconstruction that would make the freedmen full citizens. The Bureau also helped them reunite with families, purchase land, establish schools, and even legalize their marriages.
In the period between 1965 and 1972, all of the Freedmen's Bureaus activities, experiences, and reconstruction projects were well documented. The records provide useful information on the freedmen's experiences after the civil war and they include telegrams, letters, marriage and medical records, which provide full details of the slaves and their masters. To better understand the work conducted by the Freedmen's Bureau, this text analyzes various correspondences from the Bureau's records. It takes a look at three categories: race, family relations, and education, and evaluates what the correspondences reveal about the freedmen's problems and journey to freedom.
The work conducted by the Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau established districts and sub-districts to help relocated and settle the freedmen in the lands that were available at the time. For instance, in How's letter to Brown, he recounts how they organized five sub-districts and assigned several officers that would assist and cooperate with the freedmen in accordance with the objects of the bureau[footnoteRef:1]. The bureau also promoted education among the freedmen. In his letter to Woodbury, Tukey proposes teachers that should be hired and identifies the Shenandoah Valley that is lacking in education and urges the Bureau to establish a school there for the newly freed slaves[footnoteRef:2]. [1: W. Storer How to Orlando Brown, October 5, 1865] [2: Frederick S. Tukey to W.H. Woodbury,...
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