The passage includes excerpts from federal legislation dealing with the Freedmen's Bureau. "Rules and Regulations for Assistant Commissioners" stresses that "the officer should never forget that no substitute for slavery, like apprenticeship...
The passages describe the lives and contributions of three freedmen of the Rapier family. John H. Rapier, Jr., was a physician at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. John H. Rapier, Sr., a barber in Florence, Alabama, served as a voter...