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Freedmen: When is a Slave not a Slave?
By Toni Lee Robinson
Imagine having a bad
dream. You can't wait to
wake from this nightmare
and be free. Your longing
might be a little like what
black people felt who were
slaves in the southern
United States. They
yearned for freedom.
They wanted more than
anything to wake up and
not be slaves anymore.
Happily, this day of liberty came. Congress passed the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution. This law did away with slavery
everywhere in the U.S. The Civil War ended, and the slaves were
free. No more overseers. No more forced labor. No more selling
off family members at the owner's whim. If you had been a slave,
how thrilled you would have been! What a joyous day! What would
you have done to celebrate? Many of the slaves gathered together
for dances, picnics, and parades.
Soon after your great day of freedom you might have seen that
life wasn't going to be easy just because you were free. As a slave,
you had lived in housing provided by your master. Now you would
have no home. Before, your food had come from your employer, too.
Now you would have to find your own food. To make matters
worse, the white people around you were angry and unfriendly
toward black people who had been their workers.
Some people realized that freedmen, as the former slaves were
called, had many needs. The federal government set up the
Freedmen's Bureau to help black freedmen and poor white people
find food, clothing, and homes. The Bureau started schools so that
poor people could learn basic things like reading, writing, and math.
Church people helped by teaching in the schools and giving food and
shelter.
The government had promised freedmen they would be given
land and livestock so they could start a new life. The former slaves
knew that with land they would be able to grow food to eat and crops
to sell. But only a very few ever received the "forty acres and a
mule" that black people were told to expect. There were about
4,000,000 black people in the South at the time of the Civil War.
Only about 5,000 got the promised property.
For many black families, sharecropping seemed the best way to
make a living. Most former slaves had lived on farms and knew how
to do the work. Freedmen borrowed plots of land from big
landowners. Black families farmed the land and gave part of the
crop back to the landowner as payment. Landowners often expected
half the crop in return for use of the land. After paying for seed,
tools, and other needs, the sharecropper had little left to live on. It
was not an easy life.
Many freedmen chose to leave the South. Some were looking for
wives, husbands, children, or mothers or fathers that had been sold.
Others were just looking for better places to live. Northern factories
attracted many, providing jobs where they could earn wages to feed
themselves and their families. To some, Canada seemed a good
place to settle. If you were a former slave, you might feel more
secure with a whole country between you and your old life of
bondage.
Congress passed laws to give the freedmen basic rights. The 14th
Amendment made black people citizens of the nation. The 15th
Amendment gave all men the right to vote. Freedmen voted and ran
for office. Some were elected to government jobs, even to the U.S.
Congress. What a change! Only months earlier the slaves had had
no rights. Now some were leaders!
Still, the former slaves had huge challenges to overcome. Many
white Southerners were angry at the thought that people they used to
own could have the same privileges as the owners did. They
especially did not want ex-slaves to vote. A few whites did mean
things like burn down houses and schools. They tried to scare, hurt,
or even kill black people to keep them from voting.
With all these problems, it might have seemed too hard or too
dangerous for slaves to be free. Some ex-slaves went back to work
for their old masters. But for most, freedom was more important
than food or even safety. Nothing could be sweeter than to know
you were no longer property like a cow or horse belonging to
5. True or false: Most freedmen were given land to help them
start a new life.
A. True
B. False
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another person.
Slavery was like a bad dream. But morning had come. Black
people in America were slaves no longer. They were freedmen!
Freedmen: When is a Slave not a Slave?
Questions
1. What brought freedom for the slaves besides the Union
winning the Civil War?
A. Slaves revolted
B. The 13th Amendment
C. The 14th Amendment
D. The Freedmen's Bureau
2. True or false: Slaves were happy about freedom because it
meant they would no longer have to work.
A. True
B. False
3. What were the former slaves called?
A. Freedmen
B. Aliens
C. Natives
D. Scalawags
4. What did the Freedmen's Bureau do to help newly freed
slaves?
A. Set up schools
B. Give food
C. Find homes
D. All of the above
6. What was the name of the practice of farming borrowed land
in exchange for part of the crop?
A. Sharecropping
B. Plot farming
C. Plantation farming
D. Contracting
7. Which Amendment guaranteed black men the right to vote?
A. 14th
B. 13th
C. 16th
D. 15th
8. Why do you think most white people in the South did not want
freedmen to vote?