Freedmen’s Bureau was an agency created by the United States Congress to help the enslaved people freed at the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It provided food and shelter for poor persons and supervised contracts between formerly enslaved people and their employers. The bureau protected the rights of Black Americans, provided opportunities for education, and helped them in many other ways.
In March 1865, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The bureau, better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was part of the War Department. Its commissioner, General Oliver O. Howard, directed its agents.
Northern missionary and charity groups helped the Freedmen’s Bureau finance and set up more than 4,300 schools for Black students. These schools included Atlanta, Fisk, Hampton, and Howard universities. The agency built many hospitals and provided millions of meals for poor people of any race. It also supervised the distribution of abandoned lands to people who had been enslaved.
President Andrew Johnson criticized the bureau’s work as unconstitutional meddling in the affairs of the Southern States. Johnson blocked the agency’s distribution of abandoned lands to freed Black citizens. He vetoed two bills to renew the bureau, but Congress repassed one of them and expanded the powers of the bureau in 1866. Democrats charged that the agency used Black citizens to gain more power for the Republican Party. The bureau was disbanded in 1872.
