The Freedmen’s Bureau school was a school that provided many services. Some schools for freedmen were devoted exclusively to academic training. Many included instruction in some vocational skills, and some were designed as plantation schools, farm schools, sewing schools, or industrial schools. These teachers were were evangelicals and free-thinkers, male and female, black and white, married and single, Northerners and Southerners.

• • Mary Peake

She was a free woman of color that taught under an oak tree. She help slaves escape and help with the civil war. The Emancipation Proclamation was read under the tree where she taught.

• • Frances Harper 

She was tired of writing about news and about white men. She wanted to write about feelings and emotions. She was born free. She was also an activist while she toured the South to talk about women's issues.

• • Charlotte Forten 

She was originally from Philadelphia. She was an abolitionist. She was dedicated to justice and equality. She made an impact by being the first black teacher in Salem.

• Finally, complete some outside research of your own and describe what happened to these schools in the late 1870s and 1880s–1890s after the Freedmen’s Bureau agency ended. 

-Nancy Tallas