Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in March of 1865. Known as the Freedmen's Bureau, it was to provide temporary relief and education to the enslaved caught in the throes of the emancipation process. That legislation authorized the bureau to lease "not more than forty acres" of abandoned or confiscated lands to the freedmen, with an option to "purchase the land and receive such titles thereto as the United States can convey."

Although the Freedmen's Bureau was charged with helping the former slaves, its efficacy varied from state to state. Often, one officer was responsible for covering vast swaths of land, and had no power to arrest southern renegades who sought to put black people "back in their place."