African-Americans
Reconstruction/Progressive Era - Page 1
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A new society was created for African-Americans following the Civil War. The U.S. government began considering plans to help those who had been released from slavery. An organization was created in 1865 to assist ex-slaves called the Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands [known hereafter as the Freedmen's Bureau]. It resembled a social agency and was responsible for assisting refugees in obtaining clothing, medicine, schooling, registered marriage licenses, listened to complaints and disposed of food rations. It also established hospitals and camps for the homeless. By 1869, the Freedmen's Bureau work would come to end throughout the South, including Arkansas.
In Arkansas, the Union army tried to organize the African-American labor force as early as 1864. At a camp in Helena, contracts were drawn up for ex-slaves that would place them in 20 hours of work with an employer who would provide just treatment, food rations, clothing, medical care, schooling for children and wages. Military police patrolled sections of town and countryside to make sure that the employers were adhering to the terms of the contracts and treating the ex-slaves fairly. This system did not work very well and it was phased out when abuse of money and ex-slaves were suspected at all levels of the plan.
Many African-Americans set out to farm and pursue businesses of their own. After the Civil War small parcels of land were sold or leased to freedmen. It was reported that this system created, "industrious, prosperous, and loyal communities" of African-Americans in Arkansas. This program was similar to the sharecropping of the late 1800s and could have possibly been its model.
