On December 17, 1862, Col. John Eaton was ordered by General Grant to assume a general supervision of freedmen in the Department of Tennessee and Arkansas. In the early autumn of that year schools had been established, and they were multiplied during 1863 and 1864. In the absence of responsibility and supervision there grew up abuses and complaints. By some “parties engaged in the work” of education, “exorbitant charges were made for tuition,” and agents and teachers, “instead of making common cause for the good of those they came to benefit, set about detracting, perplexing, and vexing each other.” “Parties and conflicts had arisen.” “Frauds had appeared in not a few instances—evil minded, irresponsible, or incompetent persons imposing upon those not prepared to defeat or check them.” “Bad faith to fair promises had deprived the colored people of their just dues.”[[1]]
[1]. See report of Chaplain Warren, 1864, relating to colored schools.
On September 26, 1864, the Secretary of War, through Adjutant General Thomas, issued Order No. 28, in which he said: “To prevent confusion and embarrassment, the General Superintendent of Freedmen will designate officers, subject to his orders, as Superintendents of colored schools, through whom he will arrange the location of all schools, teachers, occupation of houses, and other details pertaining to the education of the freedmen.” In accordance with this order, Col. Eaton removed his headquarters from Vicksburg to Memphis. On October 20, 1864, he issued sixteen rules and regulations for the guidance of superintendents and teachers of colored schools in his supervision. These instructions to subordinates were wise and provided for the opening of a sufficient number of schools, for the payment of tuition fees from 25 cents to $1.25 per month for each scholar, according to the ability of the parents; for the admission free of those who could not pay and the furnishing of clothing by the aid of industrial schools, for the government of teachers in connection with the societies needing them, &c. The “industrial schools” were schools in which sewing was taught, and in which a large quantity of the clothing and material sent from the North was made over or made up for freedmen’s use, and were highly “useful in promoting industrious habits and in teaching useful arts of housewifery.” The supervision under such a competent head caused great improvement in the work, but department efforts were hindered by some representatives of the benevolent societies who did not heartily welcome the more orderly military supervision. An Assistant Superintendent, March 31, 1865, reports, in and around Vicksburg and Natchez, 30 schools, 60 teachers, and 4,393 pupils enrolled; in Memphis, 1,590 pupils, and in the entire supervision, 7,360 in attendance.
General Eaton submitted a report of his laborious work which is full of valuable information. Naturally, some abatement must be made from conclusions which were based on the wild statements of excited freedmen, or the false statements of interested persons. “Instinct of unlettered reason” caused a hegira of the blacks to camps of the Union Army, or within protected territory. The “negro population floated or was kicked about at will.” Strict supervision became urgent to secure “contraband information” and service, and protect the ignorant, deluded people from unscrupulous harpies. “Mental and moral enlightenment” was to be striven for, even in those troublous times, and it was fortunate that so capable and faithful an officer as General Eaton was in authority.
All the operations of the supervisors of schools did not give satisfaction, for the Inspector of Schools in South Carolina and Georgia, on October 13, 1865, says: “The Bureau does not receive that aid from the Government and Government officials it had a right to expect, and really from the course of the military officials in this Department, you might think that the only enemies to the Government are the agents of the Bureau.”
IV. By act of Congress of March 3, 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was created. The scope of its jurisdiction and work extended far beyond education. It embraced abandoned lands and the supply of the negroes with food and clothing, and during 1865 as many as 148,000 were reported as receiving rations. The Quartermaster and Commissary Departments were placed at the service of the agents of the Bureau, and, in addition to freedom, largesses were lavishly given to “reach the great and imperative necessities of the situation.” Large and comprehensive powers and resources were placed in the hands of the Bureau, and limitations of the authority of the Government were disregarded in order to meet the gravest problem of the century. Millions of recently enslaved negroes, homeless, penniless, ignorant, were to be saved from destitution or perishing, to be prepared for the sudden boon of political equality, to be made self-supporting citizens and to prevent their freedom from becoming a curse to themselves and their liberators. The Commissioner was authorized “to seize, hold, use, lease, or sell all buildings and tenements and any lands appertaining to the same, or otherwise formally held, under color of title by the late Confederate States, and buildings or lands held in trust for the same, and to use the same, or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom, to the education of the freed people.” He was empowered also to “coöperate with private benevolent associations in aid of the freedmen.” The Bureau was attached to the War Department and was at first limited in duration to one year, but was afterwards prolonged. General O. O. Howard was appointed Commissioner, with assistants. He says he was invested with “almost unlimited authority” and that the act and orders gave “great scope and liberty of action.” “Legislative, judicial, and executive powers were combined, reaching all the interests of the freedmen.” On June 2, 1865, the President ordered all officers of the United States to turn over to the Bureau “all property, funds, lands, and records in any way connected with freedmen and refugees.” This bestowment of despotic power was not considered unwise because of the peculiar exigencies of the times and the condition of the freedmen, who, being suddenly emancipated by a dynamic process, were without schools, or teachers, or means to procure them. To organize the work, a Superintendent of Schools was appointed for each State. Besides the regular appropriation by Congress, the Military authorities aided the Bureau. Transportation was furnished to teachers, books, and school furniture, and material aid was given to all engaged in education.
General Howard used his large powers to get into his custody the funds scattered in the hands of many officers, which could be made available for the freedmen. Funds bearing different names were contributed to the work of “colored education.”[[2]] During the war some of the States sent money, to officers serving in the South, to buy substitutes from among the colored people to fill up their quota under the draft. A portion of the bounty money thus sent, by an order of Gen. B. F. Butler, August 4, 1864, was retained in the hands of officers who had been superintendents of negro affairs, and by the President’s order of June 2, 1865 was turned over to the disbursing officers of the Bureau of Freedmen. After the organization of the Bureau, Gen. Howard instructed agents to turn money, held by them, over to the chief disbursing officer of the Bureau. This was in no sense public money, but belonged to individuals, enlisted as contraband recruits to fill the State quotas. What was unclaimed of what was held in trust under Gen. Butler’s order was used for educational purposes.
[2]. See Spec. Ed. Rep., District of Columbia, p. 259.
In the early part of 1867, the accounting officers of the Treasury Department ascertained that numerous frauds were being perpetrated on colored claimants for bounties under acts of Congress. Advising with General Howard, the Treasury officials drew a bill, which Congress enacted into a law, devolving upon the Commissioner the payment of bounties to colored soldiers and sailors. This enlarged responsibility gave much labor to General Howard, in his already multifarious and difficult duties, and made more honorable the acquittal which he secured when an official investigation was subsequently ordered upon his administration of the affairs of the Bureau.
The Act of Congress of July 16, 1866, gave a local fund, which was expended in the district in which it accrued, and besides there were general appropriations for the support of the Bureau, which were, in part, available for schools.