Freedmen’s Bureau Research Guide
About the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
History
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands 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 abolished in 1872.
Duties
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.
The Bureau functions included issuing rations and clothing, operating hospitals and refugee camps, and supervising labor contracts between plants and freed people. Other duties such as assisting Black soldiers and sailors in obtaining back pay, bounty payments, and pensions. The Bureau also provided transportation to refugees, and other duties.
Finding Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Publications
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands publications in our catalog
You can find Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands publications in the California State Library’s online catalog. In the advanced search, select “Author/Creator” and type in Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
If you are searching for a particular document, you can select “Title” and “contains” from the drop-down menus for the next search box and enter important words from the title.
You can also add keywords or controlled subject terms to find Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands documents on specific topics or narrow by date or material type.
Many of our Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands publications may be available only in microfiche. The California State Library has many Executive Branch Documents such as War Department publications from 1789-1909 on microfiche. Not all of our Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands may be in our catalog. Please contact us to find these difficult to find publications.
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands publications online
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands although abolished in 1872 do have documents available online. Many other documents are not yet available. The National Archives has a collection of material from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. You may search their catalog for Freedmen’s Bureau documents.
Are you not finding Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands documents in our catalog? You may search the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications for Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Publications. The Catalog of Government Publications is the finding tool for federal publications including historical and current publications.
To find even more documents, you can search the holdings of thousands of libraries at once through WorldCat. This can help you locate documents in libraries around the world, many of which are not digitized. WorldCat also links to digitized documents hosted on HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, and other platforms.
Notable and Interesting Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Publications
The United States Senate’s copy of the original Act to Establish a Bureau for the relief of Freedmen and Refugees from Monday the fifth day of December One Thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture is working on a transcription initiative of Freedmen’s Bureau documents held within the National Archives.
Transcription Initiative of Freedmen’s Bureau documents.
Full text is already available for some completed documents, as there are more than 1.5 million files this is a long-term project of the Smithsonian.
An example document being transcribed by volunteers.
Text from the transcription project.
A2
enc 4
[[stamp]] The National Archives of the United States [[/stamp]]
Office Genl. Supt. of Freedmen
Dept. Tenn. and State of Arkansas
Memphis Tenn. Feby. 22nd 1865
Special Order No. 13
Extract
IIII. Leiut. B.K. Johnston, A.A.Q.M. Freedmen will proceed to Pine Bluff and Little Rock Ark. on special business and return.
He will assist Capt. Mallory and Major Sargent in adjusting Freedmen accounts and making complete statements of the same.
By order of
John Eaton Jr.
Col. and Genl. Supt. Freedmen
To Leiut B.K. Johnston
63rd U.S.C.I. and A.A.Q.M. Freedmen