Freedmen's Bureau
(1865–72) U.S. agency established during Reconstruction to help freed slaves in their transition to freedom. Officially named the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, it was directed by Oliver O. Howard. It built hospitals and provided medical assistance to more than 1 million freed blacks and 21 million rations for blacks and whites. It also built more than 1,000 schools for black children and helped found colleges and teacher-training institutes for blacks, but it had little success in safeguarding civil rights and promoting land redistribution. Congress later responded to pressure from white Southerners by terminating the bureau.
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The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment brought 4 million people out of slavery in the defunct Confederate States of America and the slaves needed a place to start over. President Abraham Lincoln created the Freedmen's Bureau to help out the freedmen, though President Andrew Johnson vetoed the continuation of the bureau in 1866 during Reconstruction.
The Fourth Ward of Houston, Texas is the location of the Freedmen's Town Historical District.
See also
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Last updated on Tuesday June 17, 2008 at 07:47:13 PDT (GMT -0700)
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