1. The Freedmen's Bureau

2. ● The Freedmen's Bureau helped thousands of poor whites and blacks. ● It was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln. ● The Bureau was intended to last for one year after the end of the Civil War, but instead, it lasted for 4 years (1865-1869). ● The Freedmen's Bureau was passed on March 3, 1865, by Congress, to aid former slaves. ● It helped solve everyday problems of the newly freed slaves.

3. ● Freedmen's Bureau became an agency mainly to help blacks function as free persons. ● While under slavery, blacks had been denied any education, given few responsibilities, and were prevented from making decisions for themselves. ● When some blacks were free and responsible, many were unsure about if they should go back to work on plantations. ● Blacks feared that their white landowners would treat them badly.

4. A Union officer keeping the peace between a crowd of angry whites and blacks A Union officer keeping the peace between a crowd of angry whites and blacks.

5. ● The Freedmen's Bureau helped the blacks to overcome the fear of going back to their white landowners, by drawing up labor contracts, with the white landowners. ● These written labor contracts, were designed to guarantee the black workers a fair wage and job security and employers a stable work force. ● Being that most blacks could neither read or write, education was a primary concern of the Freedmen's Bureau.

7. ● Freedmen's Bureau set up schools and assisted charity groups in doing the same. ● Sometimes the bureau acted for blacks in legal matters and encouraged them to take part in politics. ● The bureau also helped the blacks set up their own churches which became the focus of community life for African Americans. ● In 1868, the Freedmen's Bureau reported 142 terroristic acts against blacks, including: 31 murders, 48 attempted murders and 63 beatings in the South.

8. A Freedmen's school in 1866.

9. Summary of the Freedmen's Bureau! Freedmen's Bureau was a federal reconstruction agency which issued food, clothing, fuel, and other supplies to black freedmen and some needy whites. It was passed on March 3, 1865, by Congress. It set up schools for black people, to help them learn how to read and write.

10. QUIZ!!!!!! 1. Why would black adults as well as children be in the school that the Freedmen's Bureau built? 2. Why were the blacks afraid to go back to work in the plantations? 3. What was the Freedmen's Bureau? 4. What were blacks denied?