Emancipation from slavery brought different experiences for individual former slaves. A government agency titled the Freedmen’s Bureau was an important (though temporary) agency created by the United States to assist newly freed people with adjusting to life outside of bondage, but it did not guarantee freed slaves' health or safety. After generations upon generations of legalized oppression, individuals who were new to freedom experienced a range of emotions after they were released from slavery. Some freed slaves felt great happiness and relief, while many others were confused and scared about how to make a life for themselves in a world that was still very hostile to African Americans.
Freedom came for former slaves in the form of increased mobility, a chance at citizenship, reunification with family members, new ways of life in freedmen colonies, and an opportunity to receive an education. But many freed slaves did not see their lives...
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change very much after emancipation. Racially inequality continued after slavery was legally over.
Some freed slaves joined the United States Armed Forces and fought for the
northern Union in hopes of gaining United States citizenship after their
military service. Almost 10% of the Union army was made up of African American
soldiers by the end of the Civil War. Military service gave some black men a
higher level of physical freedom than they had seen during slavery because
their service allowed them to travel to areas they had never visited. But they
were paid less than their white counterparts: Black soldiers received $10 per
month for their service, and three dollars was taken from that pay for their
clothing allowance. White soldiers received $13 per month, and no clothing
allowance was deducted from their pay.
Other freed slaves used their freedom to reconnect with family members that
they had lost contact with during slavery. For example, the famous former
slave, abolitionist, and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth successfully
sued a man to get her son free after his owner had sold him illegally into
perpetual slavery in Alabama. Other newly-freed African Americans were able to
reconnect with their children, husbands, and wives that they had been separated
from due to slavery.
The Union army also helped to establish many freedmen's colonies during and
after the Civil War where former slaves settled with varied experiences. One
settlement, the Freedmen's Colony on Roanoke Island in North Carolina, became
home to almost 4,000 freed people at its height. It was poorly funded and very
crowded, and the colony did not last long. It did, however, immediately
establish a school system for children living there.
Education was one freedom that many former slaves saw after emancipation. Many had waited their entire lives to experience schooling. Across the country, African American ministers and white abolitionists established schools for black children. The Freedmen's Bureau was also helpful in creating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) after the Civil War ended. HBCUs still exist today and carry on the tradition of educating many African Americans and people of other racial backgrounds, too.
It is important to remember that many freed slaves found themselves living and working on the same land where they had lived and worked during their enslavement. These freed slaves became sharecroppers. Sharecropping often brought low or no pay and conditions very similar to slavery. Disease and hunger were rampant on these farmlands, and former slaves living on sharecropping fields did not experience the freedom they dreamed their emancipation would bring.
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