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On March 3, 1865, Congress passed " An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees " to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. The Freedmen's Bureau was to operate "during the present war of rebellion, and for one year thereafter," and also established schools, supervised contracts between freedmen and employers, and managed confiscated or abandoned lands. The battle to establish the Freedmen's Bureau, and then to extend the legislation one year later, was a major factor in the struggle between President Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans in Congress over Reconstruction and the role of the federal government in integrating four million newly emancipated African Americans into the political life of the nation.

In 1863 Representative T. D. Eliot of Massachusetts proposed a bill establishing a bureau of emancipation within the Department of War to provide protection and support to newly freed African Americans. Freedmen aid societies had been advocating for such an agency through memorials, petitions, and direct lobbying. The House spent two months debating the bill and finally passed it by a vote of 69 to 67 on March 1, 1864. The bill was then referred to the Senate's Select Committee on Slavery and Freedom, chaired by Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

Senate debate on the bill focused on which executive department should run the bureau. Some senators objected to placing the Freedmen's Bureau in the Department of War, favoring the Department of the Treasury instead. Insisting that the well-being of freedmen depended on their connection to the land, these senators noted that Congress had placed control of confiscated lands in the Treasury Department and argued that freedmen and lands should be handled by one authority. Senators who favored the War Department believed it had more experience than any other agency in addressing the needs of freedmen and thought military power was necessary to protect former slaves.

Despite the fact that an amended bill would have to go back the House-where it had narrowly passed before-the Senate placed the bureau under the Treasury department and passed its amended Freedman's Bureau bill on June 28, 1864, by a vote of 21 to 9. The House refused to agree to the Senate's changes, however, so the bill went to conference. The conference committee reported a new bill on February 2, 1865, authorizing an independent Department of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, not subject to either the War or the Treasury Departments.

The revised legislation stirred more debate. In addition to the issue of which department should control the Freedmen's Bureau, senators disputed the role of the federal government in providing special treatment to a specific group of people at the exclusion of others. Some senators argued that the Freedmen's Bureau would make former slaves and Southern refugees dependent on government bureaucrats who might take advantage of them. It would, in effect, prolong their servitude, Iowa senator James Grimes claimed. "Are they free men, or are they not? If they are free men, why not let them stand as free men?" he asked. Senator Sumner countered that assistance was a necessity during the transition from slavery to freedom. "The curse of slavery is still upon them," he insisted. "Call it charity or duty," he said, regarding the creation of the Freedman's Bureau, "it is sacred as humanity."

Ultimately, the Senate voted not to concur with the conference report and requested a second conference, which agreed to place control of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in the War Department. Although several senators vociferously opposed the legislation, the Senate adopted the conference report on March 3, 1865, by a vote of 21 to 9, with 22 members abstaining. The House quickly followed suit, and President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill that same day. A little more than a month later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and Vice President Andrew Johnson, who would repeatedly clash with Radical Republicans in the House and Senate, assumed the presidency.

While the Act creating the Freedmen's Bureau was a considerable legislative accomplishment, it limited the agency's operation to just one year after the end of the Civil War. On January 5, 1866, Illinois senator Lyman Trumbull introduced a bill to extend the provisions of the Freedmen's Bureau Act by removing an expiration date and encompassing freedmen and refugees everywhere in the United States-not just in the ex-Confederate states. His bill also expanded the power of military governors to enforce provisions to protect African Americans and defined the organization of interim governments in the South under conditions prescribed by Congress. For nearly three weeks the Senate debated the bill and on January 25, approved it by a vote of 37 to 10. After House approval, the bill went to the president's desk on February 13. Supporters of the legislation, including Lyman Trumbull, believed President Andrew Johnson would sign the bill, so they were shocked when he sent the bill back to the Senate on February 19 with a veto message. Johnson's stated reasons for opposing the legislation were similar to the arguments made by the measure's opponents in the House and Senate-it was unnecessary to extend the original legislation, it infringed on states' rights, it gave the federal government an unprecedented role in providing aid to a specific group of people at the exclusion of others, and it was expensive. Johnson had resisted all congressionally driven reconstruction programs and denounced those who stood "opposed to the restoration of the Union." He viewed the Southern states as fully restored and thus "entitled to enjoy their constitutional rights as members of the Union." Democrats and moderate Republicans supported the president's position, and a vote to override the veto the next day failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote.

The issue floundered until May, when a more moderate House bill to extend the Freedmen's Bureau was proposed. This final bill gained approval by both the House and the Senate and went to the president on July 3. Again, President Johnson vetoed the bill. This time, however, both the Senate and the House mustered the two-thirds majorities necessary to override the veto. The Freedmen's Bureau Act of 1866 became law on July 16, extending the work of the agency for two more years.

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Landmark Legislation: Freedmen's Bureau Act

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Creation of the Freedmen's Bureau

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before 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. He served as the university's president from 1869 to 1874.

Oliver Otis Howard, a Union general, was appointed commissioner of the bureau in May 1865. Howard, a Maine native who attended Bowdoin College and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, reportedly had been planning to become a minister when the Civil War broke out.

During the war, Howard, nicknamed 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 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 Southerners. 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, 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 president's 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 president's Reconstruction policies as too lenient, and the Freedmen'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 were too sympathetic to Black people, served to undermine the bureau's authority.

The bureau's mission was further muddled by the fact that even among the agency's supporters in Congress and its own personnel, there 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 11 former rebel states, the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Each district was headed by an assistant commissioner.

The bureau's achievements varied from one location to another and from 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 agents were corrupt or incompetent, others were hardworking 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 legalize marriages and 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, D.C., 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 pressure from white Southerners, dismantled the Freedmen's Bureau.

Since that time, historians have debated the agency's effectiveness. A 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 a time, the Bureau's physical presence in the South made palpable to many citizens the abstract principles of equal access to the law and free labor."

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The Freedmen's Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

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African American Heritage

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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105), also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865. The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to the refugees and freedmen and lands abandoned or seized during the Civil War, duties previously shared by military commanders and US Treasury Department officials. In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard as Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

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New Beginnings for Recently Freed African Americans

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New Beginnings for Recently Freed African Americans

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Freedmen's Bureau, (1865-72), during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, popular name for the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, established by Congress to provide practical aid to 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. Headed by Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen's Bureau might be termed the first federal welfare agency. Despite handicaps of inadequate funds and poorly trained personnel, the bureau built hospitals for, and gave direct medical assistance to, more than 1,000,000 freedmen. More than 21,000,000 rations were distributed to impoverished Blacks as well as whites.

Its greatest accomplishments were in education: more than 1,000 Black schools were built and over $400,000 spent to establish teacher-training institutions. Among the historically Black colleges and universities that received aid from the bureau were Atlanta University (1865; now Clark Atlanta University) and Fisk University (1866; originally the Fisk School), named for Gen. Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who gave the school its original facilities in a former Union army barracks. Howard University, founded in 1867 through an act by the U.S. Congress, was named for Maj. Gen. Howard.

Less success was achieved in civil rights, for the bureau's own courts were poorly organized and short-lived, and only the barest forms of due process of law for freedmen could be sustained in the civil courts. Its most notable failure concerned the land itself. Thwarted by Pres. Andrew Johnson's restoration of abandoned lands to pardoned Southerners and by the adamant refusal of Congress to consider any form of land redistribution, the bureau was forced to oversee sharecropping arrangements that inevitably became oppressive. Congress, preoccupied with other national interests and responding to the continued hostility of white Southerners, terminated the bureau in July 1872.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Adam Augustyn.

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Freedmen's Bureau (formally the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands), agency created by Congress during Reconstruction to provide aid to 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. It distributed food, built hospitals, and established schools.