1865 was a pivotal year for Black Mississippians. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery—except as punishment for crimes—and the Fourteenth Amendment made them full citizens of the US. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established the same year to provide aid to Black citizens and help protect their labor rights as they began to earn wages.
Pictured: A black ink sketch. On the proper left stand a Black child in a dark jacket and white checkered skirt and an adult in a black, pinstripe suit holding a cane and basket. In the center, a White man in a boater hat sits at an open window. At the proper right, a group of sixteen people wait in line. The description at the bottom reads: “Glimpses at the Freedmen’s Bureau-Issuing Rations to the Old and Sick- from a Sketch by Our Special Agent, Jas. F. Taylor”
Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-3786
