INTRODUCTION

In the 1860’s, the nation had a problem to address...what to do with the newly freed slaves. On March 3, 1865, the War Department established the Freedman Bureau. It was the responsibility of this bureau to “supervise all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine.” The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border-states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.

On March 3, 1865, Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. It was to function for only one year, but on July 16, 1866, Congress extended the bureau’s life over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The bureau was organized under the War Department with Major General Oliver O. Howard as the commissioner. The ex-slave states were divided into 10 districts, and an assistant commissioner was appointed to each.

The bureau’s chief focus was to provide food, medical care, help with resettlement, administer justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and its most notable task, establish schools. Over 1,000 schools were built, teacher-training institutions were created, and several black colleges were founded and some were financed with the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Despite the bureau’s success in education, it was unable to cure all problems. The commissioners attempted to give the 850,000 acres of abandoned and confiscated land to freedmen, but President Johnson pardoned Confederates and gave the land back to them. Without the resettlement of land, the bureau instead focused on helping freedmen gain work. They encouraged them to work on plantations, but this eventually led to oppressive sharecropping and tenancy arrangements. The bureau had always existed with inadequate funds, so by 1869 Congress ended all of the bureau’s work except for its efforts in education. In 1870, that too was ended. The bureau continued its work for black veterans until 1872 when the bureau was terminated.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/reconstruction/a/freedmensbureau.htm

TASK

You are a newly elected member to Congress in 1870. You are a member of a committee and your job is to analyze and assess the effectiveness of the policies implemented by the Freedman’s Bureau. You will be asked to create and develop a Congressional Committee Print, which will report your research discussing the policies of the Freedmen’s Bureau and state any new policy recommendations, based on your findings.

Example: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cprints/index.html

The committee has four members and each member has a different role.

Role 1: Analyze and assess the effect of the Freedmen’s Bureau on education in the life of newly freed slaves.

Role 2: Analyze and assess the effect of the Freedmen’s Bureau on politics in the life of newly freed slaves.

Role 3: Analyze and assess the effect of the Freedmen’s Bureau on economics in the life of newly freed slaves.

Role 4: Analyze and assess the effect of the Freedmen’s Bureau on the population of newly freed slaves.

At the end, you will meet with the other committee members and review your findings. Using the research, the committee will develop the Congressional Committee Print, which will analyze the policies of the Freedmen’s Bureau and state any new policy recommendations, based on your findings.

PROCESS:

You will review existing policies and research solutions that would work better. In order to complete this WebQuest, you must follow the Public Policy Analyst steps below:

A. Define the social problem.

B. Gather evidence that supports your analysis.

C. What are the contributing factors

D. Using Internet resources, evaluate existing public policies regarding the problem.

E. Review the causes for and develop solutions to the problem.

F. Finally, select the best solutions and implement these.

RESOURCES:

Information on the Freedmans Bureau:

http://www.kn.sbc.com/s97is.vts

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics.html

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/summer_1997_freedmens_bureau_records.html

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/summer_1997_table_of_contents.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen/local/4.10.67.html

http://www.civilwarhome.com/commissionreport.htm

Census Information:

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/govdoc/popcensus.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/tablesandstats/1870pop.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/tablesandstats/augustastats.html

Politics (Race Relations/Law Enforcement/Suffrage and Political Participation)

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_politics.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_race.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_violence.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_administration.html

Economics (Labor/Land)

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_labor.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen/state/state6.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen/national/1-4-67.html

http://freedmensbureau.com/labor.htm

Education

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/HIUS403/freedmen/national/1.9.67.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/fbureau/bureau_topics_education.html

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/tablesandstats/1870education.html

EVALUATION

Performance	Excellent 5	Good 4	Satisfactory 3	Needs Improvement 2
Completion of Worksheets	Fully understand the social problem, its causes and public policy that arose from it, and fully completes worksheets	Good understanding of social problem, causes, and public policy. Completion of worksheets	Satisfactory understanding of social problem, causes, and public policy. Substantially completes worksheets.	Minimal understanding of social problem, causes, and public policy. Failure to complete worksheets
Organization	Group worked diligently on all projects and handed in signed group	Group worked together on all projects and handed in signed group summary	Group worked together on most projects and handed in signed group summary	Group did not work well together (and did not speak

STANDARDS

This Webquest responds to the followings curriculum standards:

Social Studies: Standard 2

· The student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning points in world history, and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Social Studies: Standard 3

· The student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live- local, national, and global- including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.

English Language Arts: Standard 1

· Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

English Language Arts: Standard 4

· Students will read, write, listen, a

CONCLUSION

By having completed this webquest on the Freedmen’s Bureau you have learned about one of the most important public policy initiatives in United States history. You have used your research skills to become more aware of the issues that faced the entire country, and specifically freed slaves, during the Reconstruction period. You have also used the six steps of public policy analysis and assessed the effectiveness of the implemented plans, and have also made recommendations on how you would have better faced the challenged.