03566cam a2200409 i 4500 267873146 TxAuBib 20160714120000.0 910807s1992||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780292724754 0292724756 9780292712195 0292712197 9780292724747 0292724748 (OCoLC)24320568 TxAuBib rda Crouch, Barry A., 1941- The Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans [paperback] / by Barry A. Crouch. 1st ed. Austin : University of Texas Press, 1992. xix, 187 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-181) and index. 1. The Freedmen's Bureau in Texas: a historiographical appraisal -- 2. The Texas assistant commissioners: labor, justice, education, and violence under the Bureau -- 3. The Texas Bureau in microcosm: the thirtieth subdistrict during Reconstruction -- 4. To die in Boston (Texas, that is) -- 5. Reconstructing Brazos County: race relations and the Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-1868. Fascinating stories of enormous human interest from case studies illustrate both the need for and the effectiveness of the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas. Established by Congress in 1865 to help newly emancipated blacks make the transition from slavery to freedom, the Freedmen's Bureau is considered the first social welfare agency in American history. How effectively the Bureau carried out its mission, however, has long been a subject of debate. In this revisionist study of the Bureau's operations in Texas, Barry A. Crouch challenges traditional views that the Bureau was ineffective and asserts that its agents actually made considerable--and often successful--attempts to assist black Texans. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused documentation in the National Archives, Crouch offers new insights into the workings of the Bureau and the difficulties faced by Texas Bureau officials, who served in a remote and somewhat isolated area with little support from headquarters. Particularly interesting is the case of William G. Kirkman, a conscientious agent who was assassinated for his efforts to help black workers in Boston, Texas. While the Freedmen's Bureau ultimately achieved no lasting success in Texas or elsewhere, Crouch finds that it did not hinder the cause of freed people, as some critics have claimed. Operating during Reconstruction when whites were hostile toward Union efforts to enforce laws protecting blacks, the Bureau helped many individual former slaves and provided a forum where black Texans could assert their legal rights as citizens and free laborers. Of interest to all students of African-American history and of the Reconstruction period in Texas, The Freedmens Bureau and Black Texans is one of only three state studies of the Bureau published in recent years and the first book-length examination of the Bureau in Texas. 20160714. United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands History. African Americans Texas History 19th century. Freedmen Texas History 19th century. Texas Race relations. Fallstudiensammlung. History. TXLMP