freeman's Bureau

The Freedman’s Bureau
By: Firishta Nisar

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line; in relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia, Africa, and America and the islands of the seas. It was this part that caused the civil war.

The Freedman’s Bureau was established in March 3, 1865 after two years of bitter debate. This document was addressed to all matters concerning refugees and freedmen within the states that were under reconstruction. The Bureau was not appropriated a budget of its own, but was instead custom-built as a supplementary of the War Department and depended upon it for funds and staff.

I think the one person who made a big mistake was President Johnson. After the Freedman’s Bureau was issued it never suffered from lack of funding or anything like that. The Bureau had sold or rented lands in the south which had been taken during the civil war. This is the mistake President Johnson had made was he destabilized the Bureau funding by returning all lands to the pre-Civil War owners in 1866. After this point, freed slaves lost access to lands and the Bureau lost its primary source of funding.

A lot people believed that The Freedman’s Bureau made a very small impact, if any, on the freedmen during reconstruction. A few of the reasons for the Bureau's failures as a provider for social welfare are lack of funds, weak organization of the Bureau's internal structure opposition from conservatives, and lack of interest of the Southern community.

Despite the many criticisms, the Freedmen's Bureau did help African-Americans gain access to the rights that they were denied during slavery. The Freedmen's Bureau helped black communities to establish schools and churches. Under slavery, blacks had been denied the right to education and religion. The Bureau monitored the civil authorities in cases that involved African-Americans. Originally, the Freedmen's Bureau conducted its own court of law when it was illegal for a black to testify in court in the majority of Southern states. The labor system of the South had to be completely restructured after the war. Many former slave owners attempted to trick former slaves into entering contracts under the same terms as under the slavery system. The Freedmen's Bureau acted on the behalf of blacks to negotiate fair contracts for labor and property. Freedom offered blacks the opportunity to establish a firm family structure. The Freedmen's Bureau acted as a clearinghouse of information to aide blacks in finding lost relatives and mediated domestic disputes.

Even after the Freedman’s Bureau was issued there came lot violence towards the African Americans stilled face many challenges like lynching, and a group that scared the African American community was the Ku Klux Klan. The activities of the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations were largely responsible for returning the states of Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina to white rule. But the violent methods utilized by the Klan were considered excessive by Forrest, and he ordered the organization to be disbanded in 1869. By that time, in any event, the Klan had virtually disappeared; the goal of restoration to home rule had been achieved throughout the South in the late 1870s.

Even though the Freedman’s Bureau was written the south ignored all the good deeds of the Bureau, and hated its very name with perfect hatred. So after a while theFreedmen's Bureau died, and it’s became the Fifteenth Amendment.