The Freedman's Bank and the Freedmen's Bureau were separate, from different government branches, in separate Archives record groups.
Ten percent of the African American population was free before the Civil War.
Only 15 percent of freed slaves used the family name of a former owner.
From 1865 to 1875 many African Americans changed their family name.
The first Africans to arrive in what is now the United States were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, before the Piligrims landed at Plymouth Rock.