316 



FKEEDMEN, EEFUGEES, AND ABANDONED LANDS. 



to secure to them the full amount of such 

 claims, all such claims in the future would be 

 referred to the Bureau for evidence to perfect 

 the same, to be obtained through its officers 

 and agents stationed at or near the residences 

 of the claimants ; and that payment would be 

 made through the same channel, the officer or 

 agent making the payment to be required to 

 pay the amount due to the claimant in person. 

 In this way fraud upon both Government and 

 soldier M 7 as greatly prevented. As far as pos- 

 sible all colored pensioners are now paid 

 through the Bureau. 



Supplies of Food. In issuing rations for the 

 suffering, the Bureau supplied all worthy ap- 

 plicants, irrespective of age, sex, or color. The 

 issue of rations commenced as early as June, 

 1865. Officers of the Bureau were instructed 

 to hold each plantation, county, parish, and 

 town, responsible for its own poor ; but, with 

 very few exceptions, State and municipal au- 

 thorities refused to provide for old and infirm 

 freedmen, many of whom were blind, deaf, or 

 too aged to labor. Deprived of their masters' 

 support, they must have been left to perish, 

 but for the kindly offices of the Bureau. The 

 issue of rations in 1865 was quite large, that 

 for the month of September alone being 

 1,450,643. In August, 1866, a circular was 

 issued, ordering the discontinuance of rations, 

 except to the sick in hospitals and in orphan 

 asylums. In March, 1867, when a general cry 

 came up from the South for aid, owing to the 

 failure of the crops, the Senate requested Gen- 

 eral Howard to report his information as to 

 cases of extreme want, and to submit his esti- 

 mate of the amount of funds necessary for the 

 purchase of food. He reported 32,612 whites 

 and 24,238 blacks suffering from lack of food ; 

 and that to supply them for five months, till 

 the new crop should come in, eight and a half 

 million rations would be required, valued at 

 $2,133,750. It was, therefore, enacted that 

 the Secretary of War should, through the Bu- 

 reau and out of its appropriations, issue sup- 

 plies of food to the destitute and helpless, 

 sufficient to prevent starvation and extreme 

 want ; and General Howard applied $500,000 

 for this purpose. The relief granted from 

 this fund consisted of one bushel of corn and 

 eight pounds of meat per month for each adult ; 

 one-half that amount for children under four- 

 teen; and the total amount that year was 

 850,388 pounds of pork and bacon, and 6,809,- 

 296 pounds of corn;' the total expense was 

 $445,993.36, or about eight dollars a head for 

 four months. The following table shows the 

 issue of over twenty million rations to depend- 

 ent refugees and freedmen : 



At a subsequent period, Congress trans- 

 ferred $50,000 for the purchase of seeds for 

 the South ; and three appropriations, amount- 

 ing to $55,000, were made for the poor of 

 Washington ; and these four appropriations 

 were distributed through the agency of the 

 Bureau. 



Medical Supplies. The organization of the 

 Bureau found the blacks of the South suffering 

 fearfully from epidemics. In some crowded 

 and unhealthy localities the death-rate was 

 . as high as 30 per cent. In 1865-'66 fifty-six 

 hospitals, with a capacity of 4,422 beds, ten 

 hospital-camps, and five orphan asylums, were 

 under its charge. The following year the 

 hospitals were generally changed into dispen- 

 saries, with out-door relief. In 1868-'G'J all 

 the hospitals but two, and all the 48 dispen- 

 saries, were closed. These two hospitals con- 

 tained 541 patients, all totally helpless. The 

 records of the Bureau show about half a mill- 

 ion of recorded cases of medical treatment, 

 and it is estimated that at least an equal num- 

 ber were unrecorded; making a total of a 

 million persons who received assistance during 

 the existence of the Bureau. 



Education. After the first year or two of 

 the Bureau's existence, its work became chiefly 

 educational. It early allied itself with the 

 benevolent sooieties of the North, the Bureau 

 building or hiring school-houses, the societies 

 furnishing the teachers. The amount paid by 

 Government for this educational work has been 

 found to be about equal to that contributed by 

 benevolence. At one time the American Mis- 

 sionary Association had- six hundred teachers 

 in the Southern States, and England sent 

 over half a million dollars for colored edu- 

 cation. Schools were established in all large 

 towns, and in many villages. So great was 

 the desire of the blacks for education, that 

 at the close of each term the schools have gen- 

 erally been kept open through the vacations 

 by teachers for extra tuition, or by the older 

 pupils. In 1868, 178 schools were continued 

 in Louisiana through the hot summer vacation ; 

 75 in Mississippi ; 30 in Kentucky ; in all, over 

 600 schools were kept open that summer during 

 the vacation. In 1869, 1,200 schools were car- 

 ried on through the summer vacation. Half a 

 million of scholars have been enrolled in the 

 schools under the charge of the Bureau, and it 

 is estimated that as many more have received 

 instruction elsewhere. There are eleven so- 

 called colleges or universities, seventy-four 

 high, and sixty-one normal schools, specially 

 designed for the higher education of the 

 children of the freedmen. Twelve hundred 

 and eighty school-houses have been erected, 

 at an average cost of $1,900, of which the Bu- 

 reau still controls 130; educational and other 

 societies, 606 ; and the freedmen themselves, 

 552. Appropriations have been made for 

 the construction, in whole or in part, of 334 

 school-houses, for the repairs of 198, and 

 for the rental of 598 ; the Bureau paying a 



