T<span>he </span>Bureau<span> of Refugees, </span>Freedmen<span>, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the </span>Freedmen's Bureau<span>, was a U.S. federal government agency established in 1865 to aid </span>freedmen<span> (freed slaves) in the South during the Reconstruction era of the United States, which attempted to change society in the former Confederacy .</span>
