Not exactly adjusting to it.
Obtaining what was denied and needed to flourish. Enforcing the laws.
The full title of the agency was Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Its principal aim was to provide assistance to the newly emancipated blacks of the South after the American Civil War. Originally created for one year, the bureau was continued in 1866 by Congress overriding the veto of President Andrew Johnson and was thereafter repeatedly extended. The bureau was headed by a commissioner, General Oliver Otis Howard, who was assisted by one assistant commissioner for each Southern state.
The bureau took responsibility for furnishing food and medical supplies to blacks, most of whom were destitute, and to needy whites as well. It was also concerned with the regulation of wages and working conditions of blacks, the establishment and maintenance of schools for illiterate former slaves, and the control and distribution of lands abandoned by or confiscated from Southern proprietors. In addition, the bureau handled legal trials involving blacks. The lands controlled by the bureau, totaling about 325,000 ha (about 800,000 acres), were originally intended to be distributed to former slaves and to persons of proved loyalty to the Union, in lots not exceeding 16 hectares (40 acres). For various reasons this plan was abandoned, and much of the land was returned to the former owners, causing severe disappointment to blacks, who had hoped thereby to establish themselves as independent farmers. Most of the activities of the bureau were ended in 1869, except for the educational program, which continued in effect until 1872 and effected the most significant achievements of the agency. Although it was denounced as an instrument of Northern politicians for economic and political advantage, accomplishments of the bureau included the establishment of a system of free public schools for blacks and of such higher educational institutions as Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta universities and the Hampton Institute; the expenditure of about $20 million in various types of relief and assistance; and some improvements in the social, economic, and political status of Southern blacks.
