The Freedmen's bureau formally known as the bureau of refugees, freed men in abandoned

lands was established in 1865 by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor
whites in the south in the aftermath of the Civil War the Freedmen’s bureau provided food
housing and medical aid, established schools and offered legal assistance. It also attempted to
settle former slaves on land, confiscated or abandon during the war however, the bureau was
prevented from fully carrying out its program, due to a shortage of personal funds, along with
the politics of race and reconstruction.

Creation of the freedmen’s Bureau

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by an active Congress on March 3, 1865 two months
before the Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to the union’s Ulysses s. Grant at
appomattox court house, Virginia, effectively ending the civil war.

Intended as a temporary agency to last the duration of the war, and one year afterward, the
bureau was placed under the authority of the war department, and the majority of its original
employees were Civil War soldiers.

Did you know? Howard university, a historically all-black school in Washington, D.C., was
established in 1867 and named for Oliver Howard, one of its founders and the head of the
Freedmen's Bureau.

Oliver Otis Howard, a union general, was appointed commissioner of the bureau in May 1865.
Howard, a Maine native who attended Bowdoin College in the US military academy at West
Point, reportedly had been planning to become a minister when the Civil War broke out.

During the war, Howard's nickname, the “Christian general” fought in major battles, including
Antietam and Gettysburg, and lost an arm in the battle of fair Oaks in 1862.

Reconstruction

America's reconstruction era was a turbulent time, as the nation struggled with how to rebuild
the south and transition the 4 million newly freed blacks from slavery to a free labor society. “
there was no tradition of government responsibility for a huge refugee population, and no
bureaucracy to administer a large welfare, employment and land reform program,” according to
the freedmen’s bureau and reconstruction, edited by Paul Cimbala and Randall miller.
“Congress And the army and the frame freedmen’s bureau were groping in the dark. They
created the precedents.”

From the start, the bureau faced resistance from a variety of sources, including many white,
southernerns. Another leading opponent was President Andrew Johnson, who assumed office in
April 1865, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
When congress introduced a bill in February 1866 to extend the bureau’s tenure and give it new
legal powers, Johnson vetoed The proposed legislation on the grounds that it interfered with
states’ rights, and gave preference to one group of citizens over another, and would impose a
huge financial burden on the federal government, among other issues.

In July of that same year, congress overrode the presidents veto and passed a revised version
of the bill. However, Johnson became embroiled in a bitter fight with the radical republicans in
Congress, Who viewed the presidents reconstruction policies as to lenient, and the Freedman’s
bureau suffered as a result.

Johnson’s actions, which included pardoning many former confederates, and restoring their
land, as well as removing bureau employees he thought it were too sympathetic to Black
people, served to undermine bureau’s Authority

The bureau’s Mission was further modeled by the fact that, even among the agency’s
supporters in Congress had its own personnel, their was disagreement over what type of
assistance the government should provide and For how long.

Freedmen’s Bureau’s Successes and Failures

The freedmen’s bureau was organized into districts covering the 11th former rebel states, The
border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and Washington DC. Each district was
headed by an assistant commissioner.

The Bureau’s achievement varied from one location to another and form one agent to the next.
Over its course of existence, the bureau was underfunded and understaffed, with just 900
agents at its peak.

Bureau agents, Who acted essentially, as social workers, and were frequently the only federal
representatives in southern communities, were subjected to ridicule and violence from whites(
including terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan), Who viewed the agents as
interfering in local affairs by trying to assist blacks. While some Asians were corrupt or
incompetent, others were hard-working and brave people who made significant contributions.

During its years of operation, the freedmen’s bureau fed millions of people, built hospitals and
provided medical aid, negotiated labor contracts for ex-slaves and settled labor disputes. It also
helped former slaves legalized marriages in locate, lost relatives, and assisted black veterans.

The bureau also was instrumental in building thousands of schools for blacks, and helped to
found such colleges as Howard university in Washington DC, Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee and Hampton University in Hampton Virginia. The bureau frequently worked in
conjunction with the American missionary association, and other private charity organizations.
Additionally, the bureau tried, with little success, to promote land redistribution. However, most
of the confiscated or abandoned confederate land was eventually restored to the original
owners, so there was little opportunity for black land ownership, which was seen as a means to
success in society.

Freedmen’s Bureau’s Demise

In the summer of 1872, Congress, responding in part to pursue from white southerners,
dismantled the Freedmen's Bureau.

Since that time, historians have debated the agency’s effectiveness. The lack of funding,
coupled with the politics of race and reconstruction, meant that the bureau was not able to carry
out all of its initiatives, and it failed to provide long-term protection for blacks, or ensure any real
measure of racial equality.

However, the bureau’s efforts did signal the introduction of the federal government into issues of
social welfare and labor relations. as noted in the freedmen’s bureau and reconstruction, “ the
bureau helped awaken Americans to the promise of freedom, and for time, the bureau’s physical
presence in the south made palpable to many citizens the abstract principles of equal access to
the law in free labor.”