What Major Problems Did Former Slaves Face After Civil War Essay

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Writing Assignment #1:

What major problems did former slaves face after the Civil War?

After the Civil War, America went through a reconstruction period which focused on rebuilding areas damaged by the war. For example, before the war landowners used slaves to tend to their crops, but once the war ended landowners ran into problems concerning the productivity of their plantations. With the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments passed, slaves were given freedom, and citizenship of the United States. The freedmen no longer had to work on plantations, but there was no alternatives given to them in order for them to make a living. In the reading, Toby Jones explained, in short, how he worked for his master for four years after slavery was abolished because his master forced him to stay because his master couldn’t afford to let him go. Toby said, “So I goes on working for him till I gits the chance to steal a hoss from him.”

2. How did former slaves respond to freedom?

In regards to the reading passage, Felix Haywood described it as, “We was free. Just like that, we was free.” Haywood goes on to explain, “We knowned freedom was on us, but we didn’t know what was to come with it. We thought we was …show more content…

Meaning that until former slaves believe that they are truly considered equal, they will have to provided with a way to make an income to support themselves and for them to have their own land that they can farm. Then, and only then, will former slaves believe that they too are considered free. Many former slaves, according to the reading passage, “Saw freedom in the ownership of land.” In 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman tried to give emancipated slaves land from the land that was confiscated from former

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