Path to Freedom: Freedmen’s Bureau Schools in Tennessee

To assist the formerly enslaved in their transition to freedom, the federal government inaugurated a program called the Freedmen’s Bureau. Created in March of 1865, its initial purpose was to "direct… provisions, clothing, and fuel, as may be deemed needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." Over the next several years, the Freedmen’s Bureau’s purpose would greatly expand to serve the needs of the African American community. One of the bureau’s most successful endeavors was in the area of education. Freedmen’s schools cropped up all over the south, allowing African Americans to gain an education for the first time. History’s Hook hosts Tom Price and Jo Ann McClellan, with special guest Dr. Antoinette van Zelm, explore the Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedmen’s Schools in Tennessee.

What is Front Porch Radio - History's Hook?

History’s Hook is a weekly audio-media series that uses local stories…stories found in everyone’s backyard…to explore national and world history. The show features experts and eye-witnesses to events that make those connections in history. The show’s host, Tom Price is a veteran historian who has spent nearly 30 years working in museums and archives finding those documents and objects that tell the stories of all of us. He has published numerous articles on U.S. History and has curated fifteen major exhibitions related to American History and culture.