The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, 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 State of Arkansas, Series 4: Letters and Telegrams Received.
Additional resources are available on the Freedmen's Bureau Instructions Page.
Please help us transcribe these records to learn more about the lives of formerly enslaved men and women in Arkansas during the Reconstruction Era.
The registered letters and telegrams received, March 1866–July 1870, are arranged in accordance with the order of entries in the registers of letters and telegrams received. However, no register for the period March 1866–December 1867 has been found. Therefore, a name index to the letters has been prepared by NARA for that period and is available in Series 3.1 before the first volume of the registers of letters and telegrams received.
Many of the letters and telegrams, January 1868–July 1870, have another number in addition to the entry number by which they are now filed. The registers are also annotated with these additional "File Numbers," but they are no apparent significance.