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freedmen's bureau act
After the 13th amendment was passed and with the aftermath of the Civil War, government officials realized that assistance was greatly needed for thousands of former slaves and also for impoverished whites, especially in the Southern States and Washington D.C. The war had freed nearly four million slaves and had destroyed homes, farmland and buildings in both the North and the South. The war had been very costly to the South' economy because the plantation-based economy had been destroyed. Many former saves and impoverished whites had no where to live, no clothes , no food and no jobs. Because of this, the Freedmen's Bureau Act was passed in 1865, which established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, which became known as the Freedmen's Bureau. It was established on March 3, 1865 under President Lincoln. Its job simply stated was to help thousands of people transition from slaver to freedom. This Bureau was established under the War Department and it was originally suppose to operate for only one year, but it actually worked with the freed slaves and impoverished whites from 1865 until 1872. After that first year, Congress wanted to renew the Bureau and passed an act giving authority for this in 1866, but Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill. However, Congress then passed the bill over his veto. The bureau was finally disbanded under President Ulysses S. Grant The Bureau gave aid to those in need of its assistance so that they could obtain full rights as citizens. It issued food and clothing, operated hospitals and emergency camps, oversaw schools (about 3000 of them), helped locate separated family members, promoted education, helped freedmen legalize marriages, provided employment, supervised labor contracts, provided legal representation. investigated racial confrontations, settled freedmen or abandoned or confiscated lands and worked with African American soldiers and sailors and their heirs to secure back pay and pension. The Bureau also served as a record-keeping institution and provided historical background for many freedmen and their families and these records are still accessed and valued event today. The Bureau did provide much needed relief and aid to thousands of freedmen, but many people in the day and many historians since then agree that the Bureau did not provide enough assistance and its existence was needed much longer than seven years. It did not have the funding it needed to help enough people and there were many reports of corruption, especially with the field agents. The Bureau therefore did help African Americans gain some equal rights and it did help integration during the Reconstruction time period, but it did not do enough because it was only in existence for seven years and it lacked the funding.