Freedwomen and the Freedmen's BureauEstablished by congress in early 1865, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Landsmore commonly known as the Freedmens Bureauassumed the Herculean task of overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom in the postCivil War South. Although it was called the Freedmens Bureau, the agency profoundly affected African American women. Until now remarkably little has been written about the relationship between black women and this federal