Freedmen's Bureau

Significance: The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by the federal government to assist newly freed African Americans in making the transition from slavery to freedom.

On March 3, 1865, Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau, a temporary agency within the War Department. The bureau, also known as the United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was administered by General Oliver Otis Howard from 1865 until it was dismantled by Congress in 1872. The primary objective of the Freedmen’s Bureau was to help newly freed African Americans to function as free men, women, and children. In order to achieve this goal, the bureau was expected to assume responsibility for all matters related to the newly freed slaves in the Southern states.

The bureau’s mission was an enormous undertaking because of limited resources, political conflicts over Reconstruction policies, and a hostile environment. The work of the bureau was performed by General Howard and a network of assistant commissioners in various states, largely in the South. The Freedmen’s Bureau attempted to address many of the needs of the newly freed African Americans, including labor relations, education, landownership, medical care, food distribution, family reunification, legal protection, and legal services within the African American community.

Labor and Education

In the area of labor relations, the Freedmen’s Bureau dealt with labor-related issues such as transporting and relocating refugees and the newly freed persons for employment, contract and wage disputes, and harsh legislation enacted by some states. Concerning the last issue, many Southern states had passed laws, called black codes, that required adult freed men and women to have lawful employment or a business. Otherwise, they would be fined and jailed for vagrancy, and sheriffs would hire them out to anyone who would pay their fine. Given the scarcity of jobs, this policy resulted in former slave owners maintaining rigid control over newly freed African Americans. Another discriminatory law gave the former owners of orphaned African Americans the right to hire them as apprentices rather than placing them with their relatives. Again, this law resulted in the continuation of free labor for many white Southerners. The Freedmen’s Bureau has been criticized for the failure of its agents to negotiate labor contracts in the interest of the newly freed. The bureau was frequently accused of protecting the rights of the white Southern planters instead.

Obtaining an education was extremely important to the newly freed African Americans. They knew that learning to read and write would enable them to enter into contracts and establish businesses, and would aid them in legal matters. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided some support, by providing teachers, schools, and books and by coordinating volunteers. The bureau also made a contribution to the founding of African American colleges and universities. Southern opposition to educating African Americans was a result of the white Southerners’ fear that education would make African Americans too independent and unwilling to work under the terms established by their former owners. Therefore, Southerners instituted control over the educational administration and classrooms and the entire system. White Southern planters used various methods to exert control: frequent changes in administrative personnel, the use of racial stereotypes regarding the intellectual inferiority of African Americans, and educational policy decision making based on paternalism and self-interest. Consequently, educational opportunities were significantly restricted for African American youth.

Property and Other Rights

The newly freed African Americans were eager to acquire property. They demonstrated their interest in owning their own land as individuals and formed associations to purchase large tracts of land. Their sense of family and community was the basis for their strong desire to own land. The Freedmen’s Bureau was initially authorized to distribute land that had been confiscated from Southern plantation owners during the Civil War. The Freedmen’s Bureau also attempted to provide for the social welfare of the freed persons. The agency was noted for rationing food to refugees and former slaves; it assisted families in reuniting with members who had been sold or separated in other ways during slavery.

Protecting the rights of the former slaves was a major task of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Republicans believed that African Americans should have the same rights as white Americans. However, many Southern states enacted black codes that severely restricted the civil rights of the freed men, women, and children. These laws, exacting social and economic control over African Americans, represented a new form of slavery. When state legislation prohibited African Americans’ equal rights, the bureau attempted to invoke the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which offered African Americans the same legal protections and rights as whites to testify in courts, to own property, to enforce legal contracts, and to sue. The bureau found it extremely difficult to enforce the Civil Rights Act and to prosecute state officials who enforced laws that were discriminatory against African Americans. A shortage of agents and a reluctance among bureau commissioners to challenge local officials contributed to the agency’s limited success in enforcing the Civil Rights Act. Finally, the Freedmen’s Bureau also established tribunals to address minor legal disputes of African Americans within their own communities. In many instances, freed slaves were able to resolve their own problems. When they could not, they presented their legal concerns to bureau agents.

The task assigned to the Freedmen’s Bureau was monumental. The responsibilities of the bureau significantly exceeded the resources and authority granted to it by Congress. The bureau’s ability to perform its varied tasks also was impeded by personnel shortages. The Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson represented another major challenge to the bureau, as they were not always supportive of the bureau’s mandate and objectives. Myriad problems associated with the bureau meant that the newly freed men, women, and children were not able to receive the goods and services necessary to gain economic independence. Consequently, they developed extensive self-help networks to address their needs.

Congress dismantled the bureau in July 1872.

Bibliography

Cox Richardson, Heather. “A Helping Hand.” Cobblestone. 35.9 (2014): 13–15. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

Crouch, Barry A. The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Texans. Austin: U of Texas P, 1982. Print.

Farmer-Kaiser, Mary. Freedwomen and the Freedmen’s Bureau: Race, Gender, and Public Policy in the Age of Emancipation. New York: Fordham UP, 2010. Print.

Magdol, Edward. A Right to the Land: Essays on the Freedmen’s Community. Westport: Greenwood, 1977. Print.

Nieman, Donald G., ed. The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Freedom. New York: Garland, 1994. Print.