The Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, often referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established on March 3, 1865. The duties of the Freedmen’s Bureau included supervision of all affairs relating to refugees, freedmen, and the custody of abandoned lands and property. These documents come from the Records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Series 2: Press Copies of Letters Sent.
Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women in North Carolina during the Reconstruction Era.
Have questions about how to transcribe tables in these documents? View special directions here.
Press copies of letters were obtained by wetting a piece of thin paper and pressing it on the original through the use of press copying machine, which caused the ink to be transferred to the moistened paper. Because of the relative crudeness of this method, many copies are difficult to read and some are virtually illegible.
The records of the Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia include seven volumes of press copies of letters sent. Volume 1 (43), 6 (48), and 7 (49) of the press copies, which cover the periods January 1867–March 1868 and February–August 1870, have been reproduced in this microfilm publication, although the contents of Volumes 1 and 6 are partially duplicated in the fair copy volumes. The remaining four volumes in the series have not been reproduced because they are duplicated in the fair copies of letters sent. The volumes reproduced are arranged chronologically.