I don't want to get too deeply involved with this one, but there's a few notes included to help those of you outside the U.S. pick up some of the references.

The Freedman's Bureau was created by Congress in March 1865. It's full title was the "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands" and it basically was charged with allocating abandoned or confiscated lands to former slaves on the assumption that the U.S. federal government should take some steps to help these victims of previous federal policy. "Wuss and wuss" would be a colloquial spelling of "worse and worse."

The "striped banner" would refer to the U.S. flag, and "fit" is a colloquial version of "fight", and the grammatical lapse (present "fight" instead of past tense "fought") is meant to convey the colloquial speech of the illiterates in the southern tier.

"roomatism" is rheumatism, a disease of the bones like arthritis.

The Reconstruction era in the U.S. lasted from 1865 though 1877. The first two years (1865-1866) are sometimes separated off as "Presidential" Reconstruction since the plan for reuniting the country was led by the President, Andrew Johnson. When Johnson's ideas were rejected (basically, it was a "forgive and forget" mentality that allowed the Southern states to adopt legal and political systems that preserved many of the features of slavery without having the actual institution of slavery. The legal system enacted through the South -- the Black Codes -- dealing with the treatment of former slaves denied to these people basic rights like freedom of movement, property ownership, collective bargaining, standing in court, education, etc. The radical Republicans (yes, at that time the term was not an oxymoron) in Congress passed new Civil Rights legislation (the Civil Rights Act of 1866), over President Johnson's veto. The Republicans also pushed through the 14th Amendment (1868), which guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws and due process rights, and 15 Amendment (1870), which guaranteed universal male suffrage. In this period Congress passed numerous civil rights acts -- including guarantees against discrimination by the states, the private enterprises, and by groups attempting to squelch these new rights. It is one of the great tragedies of American history that a century later, Congress was again passing essentially the same pieces of legislation.

The Reconstruction period effectively ended when the North pulled its troops out of the South following the contested 1876 presidential election. That election had some eery parallels to our 2000 presidential election here. The Democratic candidate, Robert Tilden, appeared to have squeeked out a narrow electoral victory over the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. After much maneuvering, disputed vote counts/delegates from the south went to Hayes for a pledge to restore "Home Rule" to the former confederate states; that is, to pull the Union troops out. With the military gone, the move to restore the vestiges of the slave system became inevitable and the era of Jim Crow segregation began. For more on Reconstruction, the best source available is still Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution (1988; Harper & Row; ISBN: 0-06-0158514).