He has also had the joy to experience today. I think he is eager to go back south of the james. Emmanuel grew up in did what he county. Dinwiddie county, so petersburg was home for him. Volunteering at the Petersburg National battlefield where he became a seasonal, worked there for a number of years and became a permanent historian. He has beenm there 14 years sharing this story which has largely been forgotten. The stories of the people affected by the presence of those armies has gone untold. Fortunately, emmanuel has brought that story to the forefront and is here to talk about one of the other enduring legacies of the war, the Freedmens Bureau. The question, what is going to happen with all these emancipated slaves . The Freedmens Bureau was an attempt to deal with that. It was a very complicated answer. Emmanuel dabney, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] emmanuel i am not sure how people deal with this traffic on the north side of richmond. It seems like whenever you leave richmond, you better plan on a 10r to what normally Takes Minutes to get to. I am certainly happy i made it. I was a little worried this morning that i might not get here. Im looking forward to our question and answer. Period to tackle the question of the Freedmens Bureau. Captain stuart barnes, the superintendent of the Second District of the bureau of refugees, freed men, and abandoned land headquartered in petersburg, virginia, issued a circular highlights the challenges that faced the bureau, in the postwar years. Superintendents will act at once, immense a tour of their respective counties, and make themselves acquainted with the working of the new system of free labor. Minds of the the freemen of the many extravagant ideas and extravagant impressions prevailing them for their status as friedman, that the government is to get them land. But if they remain in their old homes, they are not free. Or if they hire themselves for impliedyear in servitude for five years, or that the government will feed them in idleness. And ever todvice remove any prejudices or lack of confidence that may exist between the two classes, assured them that government would protect them in person, in property, and all of their rights and privileges, but they alone are responsible for the maintenance of themselves and families. Urged them all to make contracts at once for another year, either for wages or a share in the crops, and be prepared to ratify such contracts on the spot. Lain to them the deserved disturbed and desolate state of the country and generally they can do better to remain on the Old Plantation rather than wander about looking for a more lucrative proposition. Timeting from time to General Affairs to this offset office, and in the absence of a superintendent, the board will adjudicate in all cases that may arise and have the care of the office duties. The bureau of refugees, freed men, and abandoned lands, shorten typically to the Freedmens Bureau, had quite a huge task if you just listened to every word that the superintendent has issued from petersburg office. The task best summarized by or. Orian air phone the organization had to introduce the free labor system to the south, work with but benevolent institutes to provide education to the blacks. Be a court system to federal disputes between blacks and whites, try to ensure equal justice for blacks and whites, serve as a marriage counselor, 88 and review labor contracts, and somehow win confidence between the two races. This image here coming from the a singleeekly shows officer in the midst of all of this sort of mob chaos from both white and black southerners. 30,bureau was created march 1865. The friedman saving Trust Company was created to encourage slaves to save money. The bureau was not only to deal with issues related to freed men but refugees and any abandoned or confiscated land. The land was to be divided into 40 acre lots. Freed men could rent them until they were sold as best as the United States could sell land that was not the governments. However, during the second half of 1865, president johnson restored most of the property of almost all former confederates. Despite attempts to counter this political maneuver by a special order from the head of the bureau, president johnsons ideology went out and almost all of the 850,000 acres and the control of the bureau in june 1865 had been restored to their prewar owners by december of 1865. Discussed 40ng acres and a mule disappeared in a matter of six months. Booth not only killed president abraham lincoln, but created an enemy of the Freedmens Bureau that appeared in the form of the man on this slide, Andrew Johnson. Vetoeduary of 1866, he congress Freedmens Bureau which congress failed to override. Both houses of the Congress Passed another bill which johnson vetoed on the 16th of july, 1866. This Time Congress did override his veto. Johnsons opposition was based on his own racial prejudices. He thought could the bill was a federal encroachment into state matters. Johnson believed the bill would prevent former slaves from being selfsufficient and there was nothing for poor white. Finally, he oppose the bill because he believed that congress should not make decisions for states without representations in the federal congress, and that opposition over the subject and many others , as many folks know, will have him in a Battle Royale with congress over the course of his term in office. Here in thisohnson image kicking the Freedmens Bureau bill away in his disdain. Bureau was headed by Major GeneralOliver Otis Howard who lost his right arm and battle in 1862. Howard is known amongst many, certainly in the black community, for working with others to organize a university that carries his name still in 1867, and, d. C. In for which he was the president of that university from 1869 to 1874. In different districts and subdistricts, agents generally form Army Officers served as super attendance and assistant superintendents. Despite the memories of white southerners and soldiers mentioned a few minutes ago, there were few to no federal troops. And most of the south during the period of reconstruction, that is a problem if you are looking for help from the Freedmens Bureau. Who is going to be there to enforce whatever regulations they may come out with, and the laws as they are being applied to the now defeated confederates, former Confederate States . People becamereed politically motivated, even in the midst of other crises facing them. Virginie and needed a new constitution to be readmitted to the union. 1867, lieutenant dougal wrote his superior about the condition of the friedman freed men. Part that complaints are frequently made at my office of threats being made to intimidate freed men and force them to support men to make a constitution for the state who are not acceptable all acceptable for the colored man. In all such cases we have ensured the colored people that they will be protected in the free exercise of all their rights. A few months later, captain William Austin wrote a letter. Union legs have been found in nearly every county and the majority of the freed men have been reached and instructed and their rights and decisions, of which they will have a voice. Fear toe learned to not meet and interchange their views. They feel as long as they behave peaceably, they have the protection of the government. They havei am aware, always conducted themselves quietly and well in their meetings. Blacksitical activism of would not serve them well with most white virginians. Captain austan writing again from this corner of virginia about blacks being discharged from employment for supporting republicans. 1867, we tenant hector sears reported that the ceiling between the whites and blacks is apparently good but in reality it is bad. The whites do not want the blacks to vote unless they vote as the whites tell them. And they do not want them to hold meetings to instruct their color in regard to registration and voting. In my own county of dinwiddie, southern part of the state, november 1867, the bureau agent reported that five whites had dismissed five black laborers for voting for the republican ticket. He also said that numerous others rumored to be discharged but have not as yet learned their names. So here you see this struggle, and this case, not really represented much as a struggle. Voting,ly black man something he never thought he would probably do. You have the next generation in the new south, a union black soldier who is voting. Course, the harpers weekly did not illustrate all the back agentsth of those bureau discussing in their reports. The bureau also involved itself as a family with the Family Affairs of the recently freed. One of its greatest achievements was documenting marriages of former slaves. Every 27, 1866, Virginia Assembly enacted a law which made it such that former slaves who had married during slavery would be entitled to their rights and privileges of a married couple, and their children were deemed legitimate. Assistantens Bureau Superintendent created a register of color persons cohabitating together as husband 1866, toon 27 february document these couples and their children. Clerks ofleft with court in the county of state and retained in the Freedmens Bureaus records. Surviving virginia cohabitation registers exist for the following counties augusta, caroline, culpepper, floyd, louisiana, goochland, hanover, montgomery, rinse edward, Richmond County prince edward, Richmond County, roanoke county, surrey county, warren, washington, and they can be accessed through the library of virginias website of virginia memory. These records contain the name of the husband and wife, ages, place of birth, occupation, last owner, last owner city and county of residence, the names and children with the ages of each, and the date of commencement of cohabitation. We are extremely important records for black virginians who are trying to document their familys history. Some of you may know, we typically hit what we call the 1870 brickwall where it is difficult to get past that because previous sensor data did not list individual names of slaved people. Most people in the south virginia,here in where who were black or enslaved. One of the more interesting of these cohabitation records that i looked at came from the Caroline County register, which included a notation of two old people. I say that because they literally truly are old. Lilybaptist and his wife 10 like or both 89 years old. They had been owned by Joseph Chandler of Caroline County. They claimed to have been a couple since 1791. They wouldve been 14 years old at the time. Wether that is true or not, cannot say for sure, but they did have three surviving daughters. Judy, 47, and agnes, 45. It is clear that this couple had been committed to each other for potentially more than seven decades before anyone legally recognized their marriage. Meall the time people ask where slaves married, yes, they recognized their marriage. I am sure even Joseph Chandler recognized their marriage but the state of virginia did not, and this particular register made it possible for it to be. The bureau also attempted to aid lacks in locating family members. , in july 1867on said that spencer had come to him welcoming hoping to find her 15yearold son and 11yearold daughter. She and the children had head in 1860 one, sale but hunger compelled her to let her children returned to the house for food when they were seized and carried off. At that time, they were taken by John Mitchell of lynchburg and sold, but she was never able to find out to whom they had been sold. Hoped theike spencer, two men she thought would know something would be able to provide details. 1867,und by august 20, neither John Mitchell who had sold them or another man knew what became of her children. War,e end of the civil margaret and bird was emancipated and destitute. She was also in distress. 1865, she sought the at theon of rp clayton, bureau in hopewell, virginia. 1862 had likely been the worst year of her life, where her owner sold her from clay county, North Carolina two petersburg, virginia. She was the owner of four children. She try to find her transportation to be relocated with her children. Numerous assistant superintendents made families take care of their spouse or children, our ruling on the behavior of freed people. His sister had died after having a baby. She had four children ranging in age from eight days old to nine years old. Napoleon informed merrill that his brotherinlaw had deserted the family and refused to take care of his wife and their children. He sought the bureaus assistance to make him care for the bureaus census and see to his childrens financial wellbeing. Apprenticeships forced upon black children who were often considered orphans because of a lack of a father, even though the mother was alive and well, created another task for the bureau. In alexandria, the agent wrote that if black children had to be removed from apprenticeships by force or even bloodshed, let it be done. The purpose of the bureau must and shall be carried out. Yet at the same time, the bureau endorsed apprenticeships if they were unsure the parent or parents could support their children, such as the agent in lynchburg. Officials were ordered to bind any case wheren parents receive government those parents who were unhappy with each other, they looked to the bureau to assist them as well. Mary of yorktown turned to the Friedman Court freed men court to take them from their father. He wanted to keep the children to secure an indenture for them. He said he offered to take her back since the war that she refused to live with me. Mary fought back, exclaiming, john never done anything for me. She went on, i cannot live with him as he was always drunk and worthless. She went on to say that he had done nothing for the children, that they went their separate ways, and that the children are all the support i have. I have worked hard to raise these children. I do not know what would have become of me if they were taken away from me. That maryaffirmed would retain custody of the children and that their father has no claim to them what ever. Stanton,r case in Thomas Jackson wrote his in winchester on behalf of david or Daniel Collins on behalf of his wife hannah, who left to visit her mother in winchester in 1867, but august of 1868, she is still not home. Received a reply that Hannah Collins had become the wife of a different man in winchester and he wanted to know what he could do to be free of his polygamist wife. Asked a superior if he could simply strike their marriage from the register, or if problems if collins needed to go to court for a divorce. Jackson noticed his means were limited for court and the superior responded to his wouldinate, that collins still legally be married unless he filed a divorce in court. So we have this great image here of some people getting married. For some folks, that is what they really wanted. Asiously for other folks they were looking to be done with their lives from the past. Area thatwas one general howard and black southerners were aligned in the means to secure freedom. Regrettably, due to the lack of sufficient funding, the bureau had to work with northern aid operations to get their schools off the ground. It was practically impossible to witht poor whites education, as noted in the beginning of 1868 by captain william austan. He wrote that whites were opposed to educating freed men and poor whites. Poort on to say that whites are in bad or worse condition than freed men. They refused to go to school with blacks and the sentence sentiments are such that next schools are not profitable. That would basically wait another hundred years for integration to come to virginia. Learning was challenging, as reported by former u. S. Color tube officer henry thomas, who commanded the virginia ofdistrict at the beginning 1869, when he responded to a questionnaire. Ast is the public sentiment to the sentiment of friedman and poor whites, thomas wrote . Adverse, but not actively so. In the more barbarous parts of my district, such as christiansburg and marion, they find themselves an outlet of lies and slurs with School Teachers and filthy jokes, not original, as published by the rebel orangutans in the marion star, a newspaper, small clips , and attempting unsuccessfully to tear down the schoolhouse and flog the bureau officer. He thought the schools they would need another decade of support from northern eight organizations. Lieutenant hector sears, the lieutenant subdistrict of stafford reported in march 1980 white people were opposed. Schools sprang up. In january 1866, the school was supported by the society of friends in philadelphia. Mary kate perry was the teacher in manassas by 1868 and had 32 students. In christiansburg in southwest virginia, a black woman who was freed before the war moved out of her own house in order to allow black people to have somewhere to go. A few of the betterknown rights in the town supported the school , including mr. James taylor, who loaned them School Benches and mr. Thomas william, who alone tables and chairs. 1867, freedman rebuilding schools and the assistant superintendent noted to assist to bear to his superior that the freedman are anxious to have a teacher and child