Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
The
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, popularly known as the
Freedmen's Bureau or (mistakenly) the Freedman's Bureau, was established
March 3,
1865 by the
United States Department of War to aid distressed refugees of the
United States Civil War, including former slaves and poor white farmers. The Bureau also controlled confiscated lands or property in the former
Confederate States, some border states,
District of Columbia and
Indian Territory.
The Bureau was fully operational only from June 1865 through December 1868 and as disbanded in 1872.
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