Formerly enslaved people and slaveholders in the postwar South pursued freedom differently. For the previously enslaved Americans, the concept of freedom came from what they witnessed outside the real of their personal experiences. They witnessed freedom and its value and were now anxious to be active participants. Now that slavery had been officially abolished; freedom was a topic of great concern for the nation.

Black Americans shifted the roles of individuals within the family, with free black men having greater authority than they had previously. Black women left the fields for more domestic lifestyles but often found their way back to the workforce when faced with the impact of poverty.

Now that schooling was a real option for Black children, the Freedom Bureau became a haven for children to become the first members of their families to become literate. Black churches became a center for assembling, and ministers began to carry political clout.

Former slaveholders saw freedom differently. They fought to deny free Blacks the right to own property and vote. These were two freedoms that leaders such as Frederick Douglass saw as paramount to the developing equality of formerly enslaved people.