In March 1865, the U.S. Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau, to assist formerly enslaved people in transitioning to freedom during and after the Civil War. The bureau provided food, housing, education, and legal aid to millions of freedmen, and it was instrumental in establishing schools and hospitals across the South. Although it was hampered by limited resources and political opposition, the Freedmen's Bureau played a crucial role in the early years of Reconstruction, helping to secure the rights and opportunities for Black Americans in the postwar era.

The Freedmen's Bureau has been a subject of Reconstruction-era literature, appearing in the works of writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and in the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. The bureau's efforts to establish schools are commemorated in African American literature as a symbol of hope and progress, while its shortcomings have been critiqued in later historical fiction. The bureau's legacy continues to be explored in contemporary poetry and essays on the unfinished work of Reconstruction.