This talk is hosted by the emerging civil war blog. It is my privilege to welcome back emmanuel dabney. He comes to us from south of the james. This i95 traffic many of you enjoyed experiencing, he also has had a joy to experience it today. I think he is eager to go back. Petersburg was home to him. Closely connected to his own personal story through his ancestry. He began volunteering, where he became Seasonal Work for a number of years and became a permanent historian. Years been there 14 sharing a story that is largely over forgotten, that if armies that will armies are in one spot there longer than anyone else, and the stories by the people affected by the presence of those armies has gone untold. Emmanuel has brought that story to the forefront. He is to talk about one of the enduring legacies of the war, that is the Freedmens Bureau. Was what isestion going to happen with all these emancipated slaves . The Freedmens Bureau was an attempt to answer that. It was a very complicated answer. Emmanuel dabney, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] im not sure how people deal with this traffic on the north side of richmond. It seems like whenever you leave you leave richmond you need to plan a year for what normally takes 10 minutes to get to. I am certainly happy i made it. I was worried i would not get here. Im looking forward to our question and answer period to tackle the subject of the freed ofbureau friedmans the Freedmens Bureau. And abandon land headquartered in petersburg, virginia issued a circular, which highlights the challenges that face the bureau in the postwar years. , theirnt superintendents respective counties, their plantations, and made themselves acquainted with the working of the new system of free labor. Was the many extravagant ideas and impressions among them as to their status as friedman men. Freed the property of their former masters is to be divided above divided among them. If they hired themselves for another year in implied servitude for five years. Or that the government will feed them in idleness. By careful advice endeavor to remove any prejudices or lack of confidence that may exist between the two classes, assure them that the government will protect them in person, property, and all their rights and privileges, but they alone are responsible for the. Aintenance urged them all to make contract for another year either for wages or a share in the crops and be prepared to ratify such contracts on the spot. Disturbed them that and desolated state of the country, and generally they can do better to remain on the old plantations then laundering about looking from our lucrative situations. This must be prosecuted with vigor, reporting from time to time the general condition of the offices. The board organized under recent orders will adjudicate all cases that may arise and have the care of the office duties. The bureau of refugees, freedmen had quite ad land huge task if you just listen to that thed superintendent has issued from the petersburg office. Summarized by a historian, the organization had to introduce the free labor system to the south, work with benevolent organizations to create an Education System to the blacks, provide aid to the destitute and elderly. The court system to settle disputes between blacks and whites tried to ensure in justice for black and white a marriageserve as counselor, remediate labor contracts, and somehow win confidence between the two races. This image coming from the harpers weekly shows a single officer in the midst of all of both whiteaos from and black southerners. Created march 3, 1865, the same day the Trust Company was created to encourage former slaves to save money. As the longer name implies the bureau was not only to deal with issues related to freedmen but white unionist refugees and any abandoned or confiscated lands. Square to be divided into 40 acre lots and could rent them until they were sold as best as the United States could sell land. It was technically not the government. The second half of 1865 president Andrew Johnson restore the property of almost all former confederates. By a special order from the head of the bureau, president johnsons ideology went out and thus almost all of the 850,000 acres and the control of the bureau in june of 1865 had been prewar ownerseir by december of 1865. Acresng discussed 40 disappeared in a matter of six months. John wilkes booth not only killed president Abraham Lincoln but created an enemy of the labors bureau that appeared in the form of a man on this slide, Andrew Johnson. Is vetoedgress congresssthe freedmen bill. This Time Congress did override his veto. Billons opposition to the was based on his own racial prejudices. Formal leahy opposed the use of military during peace time. He felt the bill was a federal encroachment into state matters. He believed the bill would prevent former slaves from being self suspect self sufficient. He opposed the bill because he believed congress should not make decisions for states without representation in the federal congress. Thishat opposition over subject and many others, as many folks know, will have him in a over the course of his term in office. You can see johnson kicking the inedmen bureaus bill away his disdain. The Freedmens Bureau was headed by oliver howard, who had lost his right arm in june of 1862. Howard is known amongst many, certainly in the black community, for working with others to organize a university that carries his name in for which he was the president of that university from 1869 through 1874. In different districts throughout the south, agents generally form our former our Army Officers and serve assistant superintendents. Whitee the memory of southerners bill just mentioned a few minutes ago, there were few to no federal troops during the period of reconstruction. That is a problem if youre looking for help from the Freedmens Bureau. And the laws as they are being applied to the now defeated former confederate states. The recently freed people became politically motivated, even in the midst of other crises facing them. A newia needed constitution as parameters of the governments reconstruction plan. 1867, he wrote to his superior about the condition for the counties of smith, carol, grayson, counties and south of virginia. Threats being made to intimidate freedmen and to compel them to support men in the approaching election of delegates for the convention, to make a constitution for the state, who are not acceptable to the colored people, neither to the true union men of this district. In all such cases a we have assured the colored people they would be protected in the free exercise of all their rights. A few months later captain William Austin wrote a letter regarding political activity political clubs had been formed in nearly all the counties. Through the influence of these clubs, the majority of the freedmen had been instructed in their rights and issues and and issues on the decision in which they will have the voice. To fear andarn not interchange their views and assert what they believe are their rights. They feel as long as they behave peaceably they have the protection of the government. They have always conducted themselves quietly and will in their meetings. It would not serve them well with most white virginians. Againn austan, writing from this corner of virginia from blacks being discharged for supporting republicans. 1867, lieutenant hector reported that the feeling between the whites and blacks is apparently good. In reality it is bad. The whites dont want the blacks as the, unless they vote whites tell them. They do not want them to hold meetings. Southern part of the state, november 1867. He also said that numerous other is rumored to be discharged have not yet learned their names. Here you see this struggle. Elderly black man voting. Sort of the next generation in a former union. He did not illustrate all of the back and forth that the Bureau Agents were discussing in their reports. The bureau also involved itself with Family Affairs of the recently freed. One of its greatest achievements was documenting the marriages of former slaves. 1866, the virginia General Assembly enacted a law, which made it such that former slaves who married during slavery would be entitled to the rights and privileges of married couples. The superintendents created a register of color purple of colored persons cohabitating as husband and wife. To document these couples and their children, they were left with the cliques of court and retained in the records. Surviving the cohabitation registers exist for the following counties. Augusta, caroline, culpepper, hanover, montgomery, press and word, Richmond County prince edward, richmond washington. En, through theaccessed virginia memory. Place of birth, residence, occupation, last owners city. The names of children with the ages of each and the date of commencement with cohabitation. They are extremely important whords for black virginians are trying to document their families history. We hit the 1870 brick wall, where it is difficult to get past that because Previous Data did not list individual names of enslaved people. Most people in the south were enslaved. One of the more interesting of these cohabitation records i looked at came from the Caroline County register, which included of two old people. Wife werest and his both 89 years old. They had been owned by Joseph Chandler of Caroline County. They claimed to have been a couple since 1791. Whether that is true or not you cant say for sure. They did have three surviving daughters. 49 and agnes at 45. It is clear this couple had been committed to each other for potentially more than seven decades before anyone legally recognized their marriage. All the time you ask me where slaves marry, they recognize their marriage. The state of virginia did not and this particular register did not make it possible for it to be. The bureau also attempted to aid blacks in locating family members. The patient spencer had come to him wishing to locate her 15yearold son and 11yearold daughter and maria spencer. She handed the children head out into the woods in the summer of 1861. Hunger compelled her to return to the house or food when they were seized and carried off. At that time they were taken by john mitt chill in lynchburg but she was never able to find out to whom they have been sold. Jackson hoped the two men she thought may know something would be able to provide details. Neither john mitchell, who had sold them, nor amount nor another man, new what became what became of her children. Our grant margaret and bird was destitute. Mid october 1865 she saw the attention of the superintendent of the bureau located at city point. The year of 1862 had likely been the worst year of her life. She was the mother of four children. To find here transportation to be relocated with her children. Numerous assistant superintendents dealt with making family members and took care of their spouse and children, ruling on matters of the behavior of free people. Freedmen wrote to that s mer napoleon informed the lieutenant his brotherinlaw had deserted the family and refused to take care of his wife and their children. To see to his childrens financial wellbeing. Apprenticeships forced upon black children are often considered orphans because of a lack of a father, even though the mother was alive and well created another test for the bureau. Wrotexandria and agent that black joe and had to be removed black children had to be removed from apprenticeships by force, let it be done. At the same time the bureau endorsed apprenticeships when they were unsure if the parent or parents could support their children. Agent in lynchburg. The officials were ordered to bind out the child in any case where the parents received government support. For those parents who are unhappy with each other they looked to the bureau to assist them as well. Murder turned to the the father, tot whom she wasnt married to, wanted to keep the children to in to secure an indenture for them. Mary fought back, exclaiming that john had never done anything for me. She went on, saying i could not live with him if he was always strong can add worthless. Say he dide on to nothing for the children. And that the children are all the support i have. I had worked hard to raise these children. I do not know what would become of me if they were taken away from me. Her father has no claim to them whatsoever. Staten her case in wrote on the half of Daniel Collins regarding his wife, hannah. In august of 1868 she is still not home. Received a reply that hannah had become the wife of a different man in manchester. Collins wanted to know what he could be due to be free of his polygamist wife. Jackson asked his superior if they could strike the marriage from the register, stating what had happened or if comments needed to go to court to apply for divorce. Means are limited for divorce. The superior responded to his subordinate that collins was still legally would still legally be married unless he filed for divorce in court. Great image of people getting married. Obviously for other folks as they were looking to be done with their lives from the past. Education was one area where general howard and black southerners were aligned as a means to secure freedom, and credibly do to a lack of such issue and funding the bureau had to work with northern aid organizations to get their schools off the ground. It was practically impossible to assist whites with education, as noted in the beginning of 1868. He wrote that whites were opposed to educating freedmen. He went on to say poor whites are in are in as bad or worse condition as the freedmen. They refuse to go to school with blacks and the sentiments of both colors are that mix colors are not practicable. They would have to wait another 100 years for integration to come to virginia. And of course some people not come willingly. Learning was challenging, as reported by a color troop officer henry g thomas, who commanded the southwest virginia subdistrict at the beginning of 1860 nine when he responded to a question here. Questionnaire. So asse, but not actively the rules. And the more part more barbarous part of my districts, in feeling finds itself outlets of lies and slurs and filthy jokes, and not original, is published by the rebel orangutan in the newspaper. , the andl slips of paper unsuccessful to tear down the schoolhouse and flock the bureau officer. He thought the school would need another decade of support from northern aid organizations. Superintendent subdistrict of staffers reported in march 1866 that white people tore were very much opposed the education of the negroes. Very few will have colored children down to them because they are obliged to educate them. In january 1866 the manasseh school was reported. The teacher had 32 students attending the school. In christiansburg out in southwest virginia, a black woman who was free before the war moved out of her own house in order to allow black people to have somewhere to go. And a few of the betterknown whites in the town supported the school, including mr. James taylor who loaned the school benches, and Thomas Wilson who loaned table and chairs. 1867 freedmen were building the school and the assistant superintendents noted to his superior, the freedmen are anxious to have a teacher. Children will come to make a large school, and i respectfully request a teacher be assigned to this place with as little delay as possible. In yorktown the Monthly School report for 1867 shows a school opened in november of 1866 thanks to the assistance of the friends freedmen association. It was one white teacher, 40 male students. At 12 of the age of 16 and 15 of them could spell and read easy lessons. There is a clandestine network of people who are instructing. 45 of the students were listed as advance readers. 65 students were being instructed in writing. None of these students were free before the civil war. The same yorktown school, the population of students had exploded. 261 male students and 321 female students. On september 30 1866, the assistant superintendent of that district stated there were school supported by northern benevolent organizations, at a private school, top by an educated and intelligent colored man. The only thing to be insured that blacks were being treated fairly. Some contracts were very detailed, like the one between Nelson Walker and samuel usher. That is what it was called in the 1860s. Walker was to be paid 120 dollars one year for working at the institution. The payments would be given 10 in a month. They would provide proper and suitable corners, Medicine Free of charge. 10 was to be withheld until the end of the year when inductions were to be made for any lost time. The contracts, not so detailed. The white lawyer weight employer white employer agreed to give him half of the tobacco and half of the corn. To find him a family and also to close his children. The conflict was bound to occur, such as in buckingham county, where the Freedmens Bureau anrt heard a case regarding 1865 winter wheat harvest. There were three men who planted as slaves, but they worked for contracts. The former owner did not want to pay the proper amount because the freedmen had been slaves when they planted it. The bureau court ruled in avery of the three employees. Believed heen should only have to plant and harvest the crops and nothing more. Him to downer wanted other responsibilities. The court agreed for the land owner that he could have joe cooper do other tasks as a sign. Dozens of cases are going to be heard from the freedmens court between the free people and their white employers. The black resident who complained to the bureau in june of 1867 that his employer assaulted him, eating him about the face and head because john had requested his weekly wages. It was written up for a potential employee. It was not a fair or just one in its provision. The compensation is totally inadequate to the labor. He knew he would not interfere but if theytract violated any part of the contract, i shall cancel the contract and lead them to proceed against damages. This is a series of contracts you can see. Much more det