Records of the Freedmen’s Bureau: A Universal Resource for North Carolina Researchers
— Presented by Renate Yarborough Sanders — While the nickname “Freedmen’s Bureau” may suggest a focus solely on the formerly enslaved, these records are an essential resource for all North Carolina researchers. Officially known as the “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands”, this federal agency documented a vast cross-section of post-Civil War society. This presentation explores how the Bureau served both “freedmen” – newly liberated people of African descent – and “refugees”, a term largely referring to white Southerners displaced by the conflict.