Freedwomen and the Freedmen's Bureau
Subtitle: race, gender, and public policy in the age of emancipation
By: Mary Farmer-Kaiser.
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 275
ISBN-13: 9780823232116; 9780823232123; 9780823232130
Subjects: United States. -- Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands; African American women -- Southern States -- History -- 19th century; African American women -- Southern States -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Social aspects
Description: "Established by Congress in early 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands -- more commonly known as "the Freedmen's Bureau"--Assumed the Herculean task of overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom in the post-Civil War South. Although it was called the Freedmen's Bureau, the agency profoundly affected African-American women. Until now remarkably little has been written about the relationship between black women and this federal government agency. As Mary Farmer-Kaiser clearly demonstrates in this revealing work, by failing to recognize freedwomen as active agents of change and overlooking the gendered assumptions at work in Bureau efforts, scholars have ultimately failed to understand fully the Bureau's relationships with freedwomen, freedmen, and black communities in this pivotal era of American history"--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: That the freed-women . . . may rise to the dignity and glory of true womanhood; title: A weight of circumstances like millstones about their necks to drag and keep them down; title: The women are the controlling spirits; title: To put forth almost superhuman efforts to regain their children; title: Strict justice for every man, woman, and child.