Freedmen's Bureau, 1866

Glimpses at the Freedmen's Bureau. Issuing rations to the old and sick. Print shows African-Americans gathered outside the Freedmen's Bureau in Richmond, Virginia. A woman is handing a slip of paper through a window to a man seated inside. In the United States, the terms freedmen and freedwomen refer to former slaves emancipated during and after the American Civil War, by the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. To help freedmen transition from slavery to freedom, President Abraham Lincoln created the Freedmen's Bureau, which assigned agents throughout the former Confederate states. The Freedmen's Bureau helped African-Americans find family members from whom they had become separated during the war. The Bureau also founded schools to educate freedmen, both adults and children. The Bureau encouraged former major planters to rebuild their plantations and urged freed blacks to return to work for them, kept an eye on contracts between the newly free laborers and planters, and pushed whites and blacks to work together as employers and employees rather than as masters and slaves. Engraving by James E. Taylor for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 22, 1866

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1866 Bureau Chattel Contraband Contrabands Emancipated Escaped Freedmen Freedmens Freedwomen Fugitive Leslies Negro Negroes Rations Richmond Runaway Secession Slaves Weekly

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR