In 1863 during the American Civil War, Howe was appointed to the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, and traveled both to the Deep South and to Canada to investigate the condition of emancipated slaves. Freedmen in Canada had often reached it via the Underground Railroad. Life in Canada wasn't free from the bigotry that Freedmen and women suffered in the northern states as well as the South, but Howe found that their lives as free people were much improved. He noted that they were enfranchised and their rights protected by the government. Howe noted they were free to earn a living, marry, attend school and church out of the reach of slave-catchers. An account of his interviews and experiences were published in 1864, "The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West." He submitted his report to the Secretary of War, and it became part of the Commission's material for Congress. It contributed to passage of the law establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, considered needed to aid the southern freedmen in transition.