Freedmen's Bureau Essay

The Freedmen’s Bureau, also known as The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was created in the South after the Civil War in 1865 by Congress with the intention of providing assistance to the less fortunate whites and newly freedmen. Congress had decided that the organization would operate for one year after the end of the Civil War. In 1866, Congress passed a bill which stated that the Bureau continue to function as a peace cooperation for longer than one year, increasing its powers throughout the South. Major General Oliver Otis Howard was the head of the Bureau from 1865 to 1872 under the regulated War Department; he converted from a soldier in the War to a believer in emancipation for all. Ultimately, the Freedmen’s Bureau

With this freedom, it was extremely difficult for freedmen to be reunited with their families, due to the fact that many of the family members were sold away in all different parts of the U.S., when slavery was practiced. The Freedmen’s Bureau played a huge part in this aspect, such that they religiously tried their hardest to reunite entire families, couples, and loved ones. During slavery, men and women married, but when moved to a different owner, remarried multiple times. This was an issue for the man or woman, because the Bureau needed them to decide which spouse or husband they wanted to marry legally. With that in mind, problems also aroused with children from one man who remarried multiple times, and the decision to which ones he had control over was not in his hands, but in fact the Bureau, and they were not always in favor of the freedmen’s desires. Many freedmen were not reunited with their loved ones, because they could not be contacted or found. This was most likely due to the fact that many Southern whites refused to tell their slaves of the emancipation of all slaves, having them to believe they were still

They refused to allow women to work in the fields, as they did during slavery. The Bureau’s intentions were to receive consent from the head of the family, for the all the members to pick a job to do, with wages, such as picking cotton. Exceptions to the default family rule, included married women who were in steady hands, and abandoned families with children. Some women were tortured during slavery to the extent where their mindset was completely transformed into prostitutes, and once emancipation was given, they were looked at from a totally different perspective. The Bureau viewed them as unsuitable for a free lifestyle, and believed wealth they earned would be used in a wrongful manner. The Bureau was very passionate about incorporating religion into the minds of freedmen, as were the freedmen eager to create more churches. Whites and blacks were segregated due to issues of controlling churches. Northern missionaries collected money for the buildings, decorations, and necessities for the churches to be presented. The Bureau had a close alliance with other Methodist churches which helped them in seeking areas to use as churches, which had turned out to be successful throughout the