From: Michele Willmunder
Date: 4/27/00
Time: 1:12:18 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.229.71
The Black Man of the South and the Rebels In Chapter XI of The Black Man of the South and the Rebels, Charles Stearns explains what life was like for both the black and the white man after the abolition of slavery. The slaves were filled with joy at knowing they were now free. Many of the now freedmen left their masters right away to experience what their life was about to become without a master. There was a bit of a problem with this though. A great number of the freedmen refused to do any work from that point on believing that with freedom came the privilege of not having to do any work at all. According to the whites, many died of starvation, but in contrast the blacks said that the whites were murdering them. The whites’ response to freedom was not a very pleasant one. Many whites would fail to tell their slaves that they were now free to go. The whites also would not let some that knew of their freedom go without their consent. The white men would ask their slaves to say, and if they refused they were whipped. They told the freedmen that if they were to go north, “the Yankees would hitch them to heavy wagons and make them drag sand all day. Other primary sources to be considered in drawing a valid picture of what life was like for the freedmen after the abolition of slavery would be reference books about the outcome of the Civil War, newspaper clippings, and other books written by people of that time that documented the lives of blacks at this time.