Reconstruction Dbq

The Reconstruction Era was the years following the Civil War which lasted from 1865 through 1877. During this period, the Confederate states were allowed back into the Union and the South was in the process of being rebuilt after the devastation caused by the conflict. After the Civil War, African Americans were facing a new world. They were finally allowed rights they never had before: however, could the federal government have done more? However, they really couldn’t have. At the time, the federal government was rebuilding a broken nation. They did what they could within their power at the time to help former slaves by passing the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments and creating the Freedman’s Bureau. They could not have done …show more content…
The Freedman’s Bureau worked to help tens of thousands of former slaves in the Southern states and D.C. After the Civil War, 4 million slaves were freed, but these newly made citizens were dislocated from their homes, facing starvation, and owning only the clothes they wore. The federal government created the Freedman’s Bureau to protect former slaves and help them adjust to a society they fought to be accepted in. As Gregory Squires states, “The Civil War freed the slaves and the Freedmen's Bureau was created to facilitate that transition…” The Bureau was established in the War Department in 1865 and it took major strides in improving the lives of African Americans. It issued food and clothing, created hospitals and campsites, helped African Americans locate family members, promoted education, helped freedmen legalize marriages, provided employment and legal representation, and worked with African American soldiers and sailors to secure back pay and pensions. The creation of the Freedman’s Bureau was one of the greatest ways the federal government provided aid to so many former slaves. Though the Freedman’s Bureau was later disbanded in 1872, it was still able to accomplish many of its goals, especially in the field of education. The organization was able to establish many college and training schools for African Americans, including Howard University and Hampton Institute. Howard University was named for the general who founded the Freedman’s Bureau. He believed that the mission of the Bureau was a temporary, yet necessary one. He didn’t want African Americans to have to depend on the federal government forever, but saw the Bureau as a way to help millions of newly freed slaves find their feet. Though the Bureau wasn’t able to heal the rift between southern whites and African Americans, it was still able to improve the lives of African Americans and was able to assure