Which government agency was established in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South during the Reconstruction era, providing food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education, and legal aid?

• A. Freedmen's Bureau
• B. Abolition Movement
• C. Kansas-Nebraska Act
• D. Ostend Manifesto

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is identifying a federal program created during Reconstruction to provide immediate aid and services to those newly freed from slavery and to impoverished whites in the South. The agency that fits this description was the Freedmen's Bureau. Established by Congress in 1865, officially the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, it operated in the South to supply food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and education, and it also offered legal aid and helped with labor contracts. This kind of broad, on-the-ground assistance from the federal government during Reconstruction is exactly what the question describes. The other options refer to things that aren’t government agencies established in 1865 for postwar aid: the abolition movement was a reform effort against slavery rather than a federal relief agency; the Kansas-Nebraska Act dealt with issues of slavery in new territories; and the Ostend Manifesto was a diplomatic note about expansionist aims in Cuba.