Their religion was a picturesque blend of Christian precepts and
Voodoo customs.
The Freedmen's Bureau, authorized by Congress early in 1865, had as
its functions to aid the negro to develop self-control and
self-reliance, to help the freedman with his new wage contracts, to
befriend him when he appeared in court, and to provide for him schools
and hospitals. It was a simple, slender reed for the race to lean upon
until it learned to walk. But it interfered with the orthodox opinion
of that day regarding individual independence and was limited to the
period of war and one year thereafter. It was eyed with suspicion and
was regarded with criticism by both the keepers of the _laissez faire_
faith and the former slave owners. It established a number of schools
and made a modest beginning in peasant proprietorship and free
labor.[12]
When this temporary guide was withdrawn, private organizations to some
extent took its place. The American Missionary Association continued
the educational work, and volunteers shouldered other benevolences.
But no power and no organization could take the place of the national
authority. If the Freedmen's Bureau could have been stripped of those
evil-intentioned persons who used it for private gain, been so
organized as to enlist the support of the Southern white population,
and been continued until a new generation of blacks were prepared for
civil life, the colossal blunders and criminal misfits of that bitter
period of transition might have been avoided.
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