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Freedmen's Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Freedmen's Bureau, in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name “bureau...

bear, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bear, large mammal of the family Ursidae in the order Carnivora, found almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. Bears have large heads, bulky bodies, massive hindquarters, short, powerful limbs,...

Reconstruction

(Encyclopedia)Reconstruction, 1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, the defeated South was a ruined land. The physical destruction wrought by t...

Shaw, Robert Gould

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837–63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised i...

Porres, Saint Martin de

(Encyclopedia)Porres, Saint Martin de märtēnˈ dā pôrˈrās [key], 1579–1639, Peruvian Dominican lay brother, b. Lima. He was the son of a Spanish soldier and a black freedwoman from Panama. Apprenticed to a ...

pyrolusite

(Encyclopedia)pyrolusite pīˈrōlo͞ozīt [key], naturally occurring manganese dioxide, MnO2, a black mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system but is usually found in earthy or massive deposits. It is th...

Ponca City

(Encyclopedia)Ponca City, city (1990 pop. 26,359), Kay co., N Okla., on the Arkansas River; founded 1893 with the opening of the Cherokee Strip, inc. 1899. It is a trade, processing, and shipping hub in a grain, li...

Sand to Snow National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Sand to Snow National Monument, 154,000 acres (62,000 hectares) in the San Bernadino Mountains, S Calif. It rises from the Sonoran Desert floor to Mount San Gorgonio (11,503 ft/3,506 m), the highest p...

Poti

(Encyclopedia)Poti pôˈtyē [key], city (1989 pop. 50,922), W Georgia, on the Black Sea at the mouth of the Rion River. It is a port that ships manganese (from Chiatura), corn, lumber, and wine. The region around ...

pinto horse

(Encyclopedia)pinto horse, American light horse, characterized by large, irregular color markings—most commonly black (or dark) and white. Horses of this pattern, known regionally as “paints” [Span. pinto=pai...
 

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