How did the US government helped the freed slaves after the Civil war?

The Freedmen's Bureau, more formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned lands, was given the responsibility by the federal government of helping former slaves adjust to their new status as "freedmen" after the Civil War. The idea was initiated by President Lincoln in 1865 before his death and passed by Congress.

The Freedmen's Bureau provided emergency food, housing and medical aid to the recently freed slaves and, for the longer term, prepared them for self-sufficiency through education, instruction in their new rights including voting, and arranging for jobs, often with previous slave owners, negotiating the employment contracts on behalf of the freedmen, and then keeping an eye on the situation to make sure that the terms of the contract were complied with.

In 1871, the Freedmen's Bureau was disbanded, long before its efforts could become fully effective. In response, resentful ex-Confederates rolled back the gains made in politics and education by the freedmen and instituted a series of laws that kept the ex-slaves and their children technically free but relegated many of them to political and economic serfdom.