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[[stamp]] THE BUREAU REFUGEES FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS [[stamp/]]

THE BUREAU REFUGEES FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS
STATES OF KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE AND NORTH ALABAMA.
Assistant Commissioner's Office
Nashville, Tenn, October 10, 1865

CIRCULAR
No. 8

WAR DEPARTMENT,
BUREAU OF REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS
Washington, October 4th, 1865
CIRCULAR LETTER
State laws with regard to Apprenticeship will be recognized by this Bureau provided they make no distinction of color or in case they do so the said laws applying to white children will be extended to the colored.
Officers of this Bureau are regarded as guardians of orphans, minors of freedmen within their respective districts.
The principle to be adhered to with regard to paupers is, that each county, parish, township or city, shall care for and provide for its own poor.

Vagrant law made for free people, and now in force on the statement books of the States embraced in the operations of this Bureau, will be recognized and extended to the freedmen.

Assistant Commissioners will draw up specific instructions applicable to there respective States in accordance with the foregoing principles.
(signed) O.O. Howard
Maj.-Gen and Commissioner

In obedience to orders to me directed in the foregoing Circular from the Commissioner of the Bureau the following instructions are published for the information of all interested parties.

ORPHANS
Officers and Agents of this Bureau are regarded as Guardians of the Orphans or abandoned minors of freedmen within their respective districts and State laws with regard to Apprenticeship will be recognized provided they make no distinction on account of color or in case they do so the said laws applying to white children will be extended to the colored.

Colored children or minors, white refugees whose parents are dead or are unable or unwilling to support and educate them, and other minors of these classes, with the consent of their parent, may be apprenticed to some guardian or suitable occupation--males until they arrive at twenty-one years if age, and females until they are eighteen years of age, unless a shorter period of time may be agreed upon. Skilled trades are to be preferred.

The binding of an Apprentice shale be by indenture and said indenture shall be acknowledged before the County Court and recorded as provided by law