Nearly half of all
liberated people
continued working with their
former enslavers.
Apprenticeships,
despite offering new
opportunities,
yielded an average wage of just
$66 per year in 1865
($1,211 per year in 2022,
when adjusted for inflation).
Although
formerly enslaved people
gained new privileges
through the Freedmen’s Bureau, they were still
far from equal...
Impoverished whites comprised a
small portion
of the bureau, but received
substantially larger
wages, rent allowances, and food rations.
The Freedmen’s Bureau
was only active from
1865 - 1872.
Most of its documents were produced
within its initial three years
of existence.
A significant portion of the documents
came from North Carolina.
Documentation was not strictly adhered to
by every state, nor for
every category...
