Full transcript
0:00On January 1st 1863 President Abraham
0:04Lincoln signed the Emancipation
0:06Proclamation an executive order that
0:08proclaimed the freedom of enslaved
0:10African Americans in states that had
0:12seceded from the Union over two years
0:15later the Civil War was ended and by
0:18December of 1865 the Thirteenth
0:20Amendment to the US Constitution was
0:23ratified abolishing slavery in the
0:25United States each of these steps helped
0:28nearly four million former slaves gain
0:30their freedom these African Americans
0:32faced a long difficult road to
0:34independence and for many it was a
0:37challenge even to find shelter and work
0:40one of the first steps President Lincoln
0:42took to help them with urging Congress
0:44to establish the Bureau of refugees
0:46freedmen and abandoned lands or commonly
0:49known as the Freedmen's Bureau in March
0:52of 1865 the Bureau helped former slaves
0:56secure jobs by drawing up labor
0:58contracts and providing temporary
1:00housing food and medical care
1:02it was also tasked with reuniting
1:05families that were separated during the
1:07Civil War the Freedmen's Bureau
1:09legalized marriages and kept detailed
1:11records that are housed in the National
1:13Archives to this day but perhaps its
1:16greatest achievement was in education
1:18the freedmen's bureau established
1:20thousands of freedmen schools in the
1:22South increasing black literacy to above
1:2530% it also built several colleges that
1:29are known today as historically black
1:31colleges and universities like Fisk
1:33University in Tennessee and Howard
1:36University in Washington DC granting
1:39more than a thousand college degrees to
1:41African Americans by 1872 the Freedmen's
1:45Bureau z' accomplishments did not come
1:47easy its efforts were not supported by
1:49the majority of white Southerners and
1:51many white northerners were ambivalent
1:54toward its goals after President Lincoln
1:57was assassinated Vice President Johnson
1:59took his place as a southerner Johnson
2:01had little sympathy for the former
2:03slaves he quickly cut funding to the
2:06already unpopular program at the same
2:08time white people that worked for the
2:10Freedmen's Bureau often had to deal with
2:12you'll even so many Bureau workers
2:15stayed in the south helping the
2:17reconstruction effort by getting
2:19involved in politics renting homes and
2:21rebuilding their own lives in the
2:23economy as well while the lack of
2:26funding contributed to the disbandment
2:28of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1872 its
2:31influence is noteworthy for many African
2:34Americans the services of the Freedmen's
2:36Bureau were a vital source of support as
2:38they created new lives and sought to
2:40claim their new freedoms