The status of freedwomen, like freedmen, varied widely. Many freedwomen worked as cooks and laundresses at the Union camp. Like slaves, freedmen and freedwomen, with their families, were provided burial space with the "familia". In March 1866, Sarah Tupper began teaching freedwomen in similar classes. Freedman's Bureau agents initially complained that freedwomen were refusing to contract their labor. Therefore, freedmen and freedwomen would portray themselves as married couple on their tombs. She later joined him in his work, helping teach freedwomen as he taught the men. In most ways, freedwomen had the same legal status as freeborn women.