Reconstruction was one of the most troubled eras in American history. Conflicts over how best to repair the war-torn nation drove wedges between northerners and southerners, Democrats and Republicans, and the president and Congress. The history of the Freedmen’s Bureau, an agency established by Congress in March 1865, typifies these conflicts. Although the bureau aided the newly freed slaves in many ways, opposition from President Andrew Johnson and white southerners guaranteed that the bureau could not be wholly successful.

The purpose of the Freedmen’s Bureau, known officially as the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Property, was to help freedmen and Civil War refugees by offering a variety of services, including educational and medical services. However, in what would be the first sign that the Freedmen’s Bureau’s mission would not be an easy one, Congress decided not...