Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Volume 30 (Spring-Winter 1971), p. 242

The American Missionary
Association and the Freedmen's
Bureau in Arkansas, 1866-1868

By LARRY WESLEY PEARCE*
Magnolia

PHASE TWO OF THE WORK OF THE TEACHERS OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
Association (AMA) in Arkansas began with the setting up in the state of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. This new agency, known familiarly as the Freedmen's Bureau, was a branch of the War Department and was directed by General Oliver O. Howard with headquarters in Washington. From June to October, 1865, Arkansas and Missouri formed a district with headquarters at St. Louis, but in October, when bureau operations ceased in Missouri, district headquarters were moved to Little Rock. The Arkansas district was headed successively by Generals J. W. Sprague, E. 0. C. Ord, and C. H. Smith. (1)

But it was the subordinates of these officers with whom the AMA teachers worked. The most important of these, and the men pertinent to our subject, were W. G. Sargent, general superintendent of the bureau in Arkansas, with headquarters in Little Rock; William Colby, general superintendent of schools for the freedmen and refugees; and Colby's immediate subordinate Enoch K. Miller, assistant superintendent of bureau schools.

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* This paper was submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for graduation with honors in History from

Hendrix College. Mr. Pearce's article dealing with the AMA teachers prior to 1866 was published in the Summer 1971 issue.

1. Thomas S. Staples, Reconstruction in Arkansas, 1862-1874 (New York, 1923), 194-196, 214.

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