AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/3/3-2)
Unit 3 · Topic 3.2
3.2 Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen’s Bureau
After emancipation, African Americans worked to rebuild families that slavery had torn apart, searching for relatives, legalizing marriages and choosing new names. The Freedmen's Bureau, a federal agency, helped with food, schools and legal marriages, and the search for kin gave rise to the tradition of Black family reunions.
Key terms
- Freedmen's Bureau
- information wanted ads
- legal marriage
- kinship
- family reunions
The Freedmen's Bureau
Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau, in 1865. It operated until 1872. The required source is the 1865 act that established it.
The Bureau managed land that had been abandoned or confiscated during the war, but its main job was to help formerly enslaved people make the transition to freedom and citizenship. It handed out food and clothing, legalized marriages, helped people find relatives, oversaw labor contracts and founded schools. Howard University in Washington, D.C., is named for the Bureau's head, General Oliver O. Howard. The Bureau was understaffed and underfunded, though, and it was shut down before its work was done.
Searching for family
Slavery shattered families. Relatives were sold away, moved hundreds of miles and given new names by enslavers again and again, which made them hard to find. Still, enslaved people built new kinship bonds, including chosen family, and kept family traditions alive.
After emancipation, many African Americans set out to find lost parents, children, spouses and siblings. They traveled, asked around and relied on the Freedmen's Bureau. They also placed 'Information Wanted' ads in Black newspapers, describing the person they were looking for and when they were separated.
Two required ads show this search. Elizabeth Brisco placed one in The Christian Recorder in 1864, and Clarissa Reed placed one in the Southwestern Christian Advocate in 1883, almost twenty years after the war, which shows how long the search could last. The Christian Recorder, founded in 1852 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is the oldest continuously published African American newspaper.
Marriage and new names
Marriages between enslaved people had no legal standing, so an enslaver could separate a couple at any time. Many couples marked their unions by 'jumping the broom' in a ceremony. After abolition, thousands of formerly enslaved couples rushed to make their marriages legal as soon as they could.
Many freedpeople also chose new names, especially new last names, to mark their status as free people. Choosing your own name was a way of claiming your own identity after years of having others decide it for you.
Family reunions
The search for lost relatives grew into a lasting tradition: the Black family reunion. Modern reunions bring relatives together to share family history, music and food, and to celebrate the resilience of families that survived slavery and its aftermath.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Using an ad as evidence
An 1883 newspaper ad seeks information about family members separated during slavery. Explain what this source reveals about African American life after emancipation.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Note the date: 1883, almost twenty years after slavery ended.
- Step 2: Explain the context: the domestic slave trade had scattered families.
- Step 3: Draw a conclusion: rebuilding family was a long-term priority and act of freedom.
Answer: Model answer: The ad shows that the damage slavery did to families lasted long after emancipation: nearly twenty years after the Civil War, people were still searching for relatives sold away in the domestic slave trade. It also shows how African Americans used Black newspapers and their churches' networks to rebuild families, treating reunion as an essential part of freedom.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Freedmen's Bureau mainly gave out land. Its main work was food, clothing, marriages, schools and labor contracts.
- Assuming enslaved people had no families. They formed strong kinship bonds, even though the law didn't recognize them.
- Forgetting that the Bureau was temporary (1865–1872) and underfunded.
On the exam
- Newspaper ads are likely sources. Explain both what they show about slavery's damage and what they show about Black agency.
- Connect the search for family to the domestic slave trade (2.5).
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 3.2 Social Life: Reuniting Black Families and the Freedmen’s Bureau. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Which was a primary function of the Freedmen's Bureau (1865–1872)?
After emancipation, thousands of formerly enslaved couples legally married and many chose new names. These choices best show that freedpeople
Information Wanted. A woman living in Philadelphia seeks news of her children and her sister, who were sold from a plantation in Virginia many years before the war. She lists their names, the name of their former enslaver and the county where they were last seen, and asks ministers to read the notice aloud to their congregations.
Description written for this practice set of a typical "Information Wanted" advertisement in a Black newspaper such as The Christian Recorder, 1860s–1880s
Ads like this one were most directly a response to
Asking ministers to read the notice aloud suggests that
Which modern tradition historians connect to these searches?
0 of 5 answered