USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans.

Detailed explanation-2: -During the seven years of its existence (1865-1872), this agency helped freed people rejoin with their separated partners, children, parents, and siblings, and it also presided over and documented marriages between freed couples whose relationships had not been legally recognized during slavery.

Detailed explanation-3: -It helped freedpeople establish schools, purchase land, locate family members, and legalize marriages. The Bureau also supplied necessities such as food and clothing, operated hospitals and temporary camps, and witnessed labor contracts between freedmen and plantation owners or other employers.

Detailed explanation-4: -These handwritten records include letters, labor contracts, lists of food rations issued, indentures of apprenticeship, marriage and hospital registers and census lists. They provide a unique view into the lives of newly freed individuals and the social conditions of the South after the war.