Chapter 16, Student Web Activities, Texas and Texans, Glencoe, 2003

Chapter 16: Reconstruction
"The Freedmen's Bureau"

Introduction
Have you ever written a letter to your representatives in Congress or to your local governing body? If so, your letter may someday appear as an archive. Archives are primary sources such as letters, documents, or photographs that are preserved for future generations. In this activity, you will read a letter from the Texas State Archives concerning the Freedmen's Bureau. In this chapter you learned about the attempts of the Freedmen's Bureau to aid freed African Americans in Texas and in other Southern states.

Destination Title: Texas State Library and Archives Commission

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Directions
Start at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission Web site's Texas Treasures exhibit.

Scroll down to find "List of Governors in Chronological Order" and click on it.
Under "War, Ruin, and Reconstruction," click on Andrew J. Hamilton 1865-1866.
Toward the bottom, you will see "Letter from Van Zandt County asking for an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau." Click on the letter.
Read the introduction to and the three pages of the letter.

Use what you have learned to answer the following questions.

1. Who wrote this letter? To whom was the letter written? When was the letter written?

2. When did the Freedmen's Bureau operate in Texas? In what areas was it successful? In what areas were its efforts defeated?

3. What had happened in the previous two weeks that made Richardson write the letter? What is he requesting from the governor?

4. What are the "secret organizations" doing to both the freedmen and those who attempt to hire the freedmen?

5. Now write your own letter to the current Texas governor. Title your letter "Texas: More Than 100 Years After the Freedmen's Bureau," and describe the challenges and hardships faced by African Americans since Reconstruction. Imagine that your letter will be placed in the Texas Archives. Use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation when writing your letter in the space below.