Freedmen's Bureau Builds School Network Across South

By 1870 the Freedmen's Bureau had helped establish over 4,000 schools serving roughly 247,000 students across the South, staffed by approximately 9,300 teachers. It partnered with Northern missionary societies including the American Missionary Association. The Bureau also created or supported Fisk, Howard, Hampton, and other institutions that became historically Black colleges. Formerly enslaved people organized self-taxation to build schoolhouses.