Records Relating to the Relief of Destitute Freedmen
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M1055, Series 8
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Records relating to relief activities include those of the Special Relief Commission, which was established by the Bureau, headed by Surgeon in Chief Robert Reyburn, and funded by a special congressional appropriation for destitute people in the District. A register of destitute persons recommended for relief to be paid for out of the congressional appropriation, May 1866–January 1868, is arranged chronologically. It includes the name, race, and residence of the destitute person, the number of persons in his or her family, the name of the agent, cause of destitution, type and cost of aid required, and the date it was acted upon. This volume apparently was compiled in part from weekly reports of operations of the Special Relief Commission, May 1866–October 1868, which also are arranged chronologically and contain similar information.

Other records relating to the relief of destitute freedmen include agents' reports of investigations, May–August 1868. The printed forms on which the reports were prepared are arranged chronologically and give such information about the freedmen as length of residency in the District, food and supplies needed, and willingness to Freedmen's Village. Trimonthly returns from employees and dependents at Freedmen's Hospital, February–May 1868, which are arranged chronologically, show the number of destitute freedmen employed at the hospital.