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Section 2: Building the Black Community: The Family Section 2: Building the Black Community: The Church Section 2: Building the Black Community: The School Section 2: Quest for Economic Autonomy and Equal Rights Section 2: Memory and Mourning Section 2: Violence

"Marriage of a Colored Soldier at Vicksburg,", Alfred R. Waud, c. 1865.

"Marriage of a Colored Soldier at Vicksburg,"
Alfred R. Waud, c. 1865.
(The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1965.71)

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In the early days of freedom, thousands of African-Americans married under the authority of the Freedman's Bureau, an agency established by the federal government to look after the needs of the former slave.

Bureau records indicate that some marriages involved young men and women marrying for the first time, while others legalized slave unions made years before.
Copyright 2003
A New Birth of Freedom: Reconstruction During the Civil War The Meaning of Freedom: Black and White Responses to Slavery From Free Labor to Slave Labor Rights and Power: The Politics of Reconstruction Introduction The Ending of Reconstruction Epilogue Additional Resources Credits for this Exhibit