African slaves who escaped their plantations and worked for the Union military earned between six and eighteen dollars a month as carpenters, blacksmiths, drivers, boatmen, and laborers, while others worked as cooks and servants for officers, businessmen, and teachers on the island. They also sold or bartered food and various goods, and many men and women picked cotton for Union agents. Northern abolitionists' and the government's vision did not always match that of their workers, and former African slaves remained vigilant in protecting their new rights. Mitchelville survived past the Civil War, and in January 1865 its mayor, Rev. Abraham Mercherson, answered the question of what would happen when the war ended by saying that people should go out into the land, make their homes there, and buy twenty acres so that no one could oppress them thereafter. In March 1865, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to oversee housing, education, and the employment of freedmen. Over the next five years, Congress adopted amendments to the Constitution that outlawed slavery and conferred citizenship and the vote on former African slaves. In the Sea Islands, many residents remained landowners and politically active.