I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5157
To amend title 44, United States Code, to ensure preservation of the records
of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 12, 2000
Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD (for herself and Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Govern-
ment Reform
A BILL
To amend title 44, United States Code, to ensure
preservation of the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedmen’s Bureau
Records Preservation Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) From 1619 to 1800 more than 660,000 Af-
rican men, women, and children were torn from
their homelands in west Africa and herded onto
ships for transport to North America as slaves.
(2) Between 10 and 15 percent of these Afri-
cans died during the journey across the Atlantic
Ocean.
(3) The institution of slavery robbed Africans of
their natural rights and divided this Nation over the
meaning of freedom, the principle upon which this
Nation was founded.
(4) Paraphrasing President Abraham Lincoln,
the Government could not endure permanently half
slave and half free.
(5) The United States waged the Civil War to
free the Nation’s slaves, preserve the Nation, and
embrace all people as citizens regardless of race in
a system of inclusive freedom for all.
(6) On January 1, 1863, President Abraham
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation,
which declared that individuals held as slaves within
the rebellious States ‘‘are, and henceforward shall be
free’’.
(7) On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered the Confederate Army to General Ulys-
ses S. Grant, thereby ending the Civil War.
(8) In 1865, the Congress established in the
War Department the Bureau of Refugees, Freed-
men, and Abandoned Lands, commonly referred to
as the ‘‘Freedmen’s Bureau’’, to supervise and man-
age all matters relating to refugees and freedmen,
and to supervise abandoned and confiscated prop-
erty.
(9) The records of the Freedmen’s Bureau are
a vital source of information for historians and gene-
alogists.
(10) These records contain a wide range of data
about the African-American experience during slav-
ery and freedom, including in marriage records,
labor contracts, Government rations and back pay
records, and indentured contracts for minors.
(11) These records are maintained in Alabama,
Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Geor-
gia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Delaware, Mis-
sissippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
(12) All of these records are originals and, be-
cause they are deteriorating, require immediate at-
tention.
(13) These records are an important link for
African-Americans to their slave and African ances-
tors.
(14) Preserving the records of the Freedmen’s
Bureau is a high priority for millions of Americans
interested in Civil War and post-Civil War era his-
tory.
SEC. 
3. 
PRESERVATION 
OF 
FREEDMEN’S 
BUREAU
RECORDS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 29 of title 44, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘§ 2910. Preservation of Freedmen’s Bureau Records
‘‘The Archivist shall preserve the records of the Bu-
reau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, com-
monly referred to as the ‘Freedmen’s Bureau’, by using—
‘‘(1) available technology for restoration of the
documents comprising these records so that they can
be maintained for future generations; and
‘‘(2) innovative imaging and indexing tech-
nologies to make these records easily accessible to
the public, including historians, genealogists, novice
genealogy enthusiasts, and students.’’.
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections
at the beginning of chapter 29 of title 44, United States
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new
item:
‘‘2910. Preservation of freedmen’s bureau records.’’.
Æ