Accessing the Freedmen's Bureau Records of Texas

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions.

The records consist of bound volumes and unbound records, including letters received and endorsements, monthly school reports, and other records relating to freedmen's complaints and contracts. 

• Click Browse through 29,370 images
  
  
   
• You can view a Table of Contents, which may help you navigate the huge number of records, click Descriptive Pamphlet (which appears at the beginning of the list of Field Office locations). Navigate to page 14 where the Table of Contents begins. You can browse the contents of all 28 rolls, or you can scroll forward and focus on a roll number associated with a specific field office.
   
• Click a Field Office location.
  
  
   
• Each location will then present links to one or more "Rolls." (This digital collection was created from 28 rolls of microfilm.) Note the roll number(s) for a specific office if you want help navigating these records in the Table of Contents (as described above).