Freedmen's Bureau Case Study

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1). What did freedom mean for ex-slaves? How did their priorities differ from those of African Americans who had been free before the Civil War? Freedom for ex-slaves meant all sorts of beautiful things like not getting abused by the plantation owners, being able to get an education, being with their families forever with no threat of being separated, being able to live on their own without having any ties to someone or someplace else and so much more. Most were elated by this newfound freedom, some were frightened. Some could not imagine a world where they were allowed to be free and having so much independance felt overwhelming. These ex-slaves would stay with their past masters. Those who were freed after the civil war had differing priorities …show more content…
How effective was the Freedmen’s Bureau? How successful was it in assisting ex-slaves to live in freedom? The Freedmen’s Bureau had a lot of responsibilities like feeding, clothing, find work for and educating ex-slaves, but the problem was that it did not receive adequate funds or employees to actually do these tasks from Congress. 1 agent may serve a community of 10,000-20,000 freed slaves and have to attend to them all. Other factors would play into how effective the Bureau was too. Lots of Southern cities like Atlanta and Charleston were left in ruins after the Civil War and a devastating smallpox epidemic spread through the south soon after the Civil War so the Bureau was working extra hard to care for the sick. They attempted to feed as many poor as they could, build shelter camps for the homeless and treat the sick. The Freedmen’s Bureau indeed did whatever they could to help as many people as they could, they were just vastly …show more content…
Why did Radical Republicans object to president Andrew Johnson’s reconstruction policies? Why did Congress impose its own Reconstruction policies? Both congress and Radical Republicans were shocked and disappointed in their new president’s behavior towards African Americans. Radical Republicans were for equality, at least in the economic and political sense. They wanted to integrate African Americans into politics and economy and felt it was utterly disgraceful that the president of the United States that was supposed to be fighting for all Americans, had turned his back on African Americans and requested that the rest of America do the same. Radical Republicans tried to fight for African Americans and submitted a bill to congress about awarding them 400 acres of land from the wealthiest of plantation owners. The bill was ignored so they turned instead to fighting for African American’s right to vote because only that way did they feel that African Americans could hold their own place in society and be completely

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